Price 10 Cents 



Klondyke 



Nuggets 



A Brief Description of the Great Gold Regions 
in the Northwest Territories and Alasica 



BY 



Joseph Ladue 

Founder of Dawson City, N.W.T. 

Explorer, Miner an4 Prospector 



PHOTOGRAPHED FROM ONE OF THE AUTHOR'S NUGGETS 

NEW YORK 

AHERICAN TECHNICAL BOOK COMPANY 

45 VESEY STREET 

erican Technical Series No. 5. Issued quarterly. Annual subscription |2.oo 
Entered at the New York, N. Y . Post Office as second class matter 
September, 1897 



KLONDYKE NUGGETS 



BEING 



A »\UEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FAMOUS GOLD REGIONS OF 
THE GREAT CANADIAN NORTHWEST AND ALASKA 



By JOSEPH LADUE 

FOUNDER OF DAWSON, N. W. T., AND AUTHOR OF " KLONDYKE FACTS-'' 



NEW YORK 

AMERICAN TECHNICAL BOOK CO., 

45 Vesey Street. 

' ■ 'J ■ , 



Copyright, 1S97, 
By AMERICAN TECHNICAL BOOK CO. 



All RiHits Reserved 



No extracts can be made without the permission of the Publishers. 



(\h\ N 






PREFACE. 



Thp: extraordinary excitement arising from the 
reports of the discovery of Gold in the Klondyke 
region in the great Canadian Northwest is not sur- 
prising to one who, through personal residence and 
practical experience, is thoroughly conversant with 
the locality. 

Having recently returned for a temporary stay, 
after a somewhat successful experience, I have re- 
ceived applications for information in numbers so 
great that it far exceeds my ability and the time at 
my disposal to make direct replies. 

I have therefore arranged with the American 
Technical Book Co., 45 Yesey Street, J^ew York 
City, for the issue of this brief description, prepara- 
tory to the publication of my larger book, " Klon- 
dyke Facts," a book of 224 pages, with illustrations 
and maps, in which will be found a vast fund of 
practical information, statistics, and all particulars 
sought for by those who intend emigrating to this 
wonderful country. 

It is Avell-nigh impossible to tell the truth of these 
recent discoveries of gold, but while I can only 
briefly describe the territory in this small work, it 

3 



4 P EFFACE. 

shall be my endeavor to give the intending pros- 
pector, in the large work above mentioned, as many 
facts as possible, and these may thoroughly be relied 
upon, as from one who has lived continuously in 
those regions since 1882. 

Joseph Ladue. 



I 



KLONDYKE NUGGETS- 



CHAPTER I. 



KLONDYKE. 



Klondyke ! The word and place that has startled 
the civilized AYorld is to-day a series of thriving min- 
ing camps on the Yukon River and its tributaries in 
the Canadian Northwest Territories. 

Prior to August 24, 1890, this section of the coun- 
try had never been heard of. It was on this day 
that a man named Henderson discovered the first 
gold. 

On the first day of the following month the writer 
commenced erecting the first house in this region 
and called the place Dawson City, now the central 
point of the mining camps. 

Dawson City is now the most important point in 
the new mining regions. Its population in June, 1897, 
exceeded 4,000 ; by June next it cannot be less than 
25,000. It has a saw-mill, stores, churches, of the 
Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist and Roman Catho- 
lic denominations. It is the headquarters of the 



6 KLONDYKE NUGGETS. 

Canadian JSTorthwest Mounted Police, cmd jperfect 
lata and order is maintained. 

It is at Dawson City that the prospector files his 
claims with the Government Gold Commissioner, 
in the recording offices. 

Dawson City faces on one of the banks of the 
Yukon E-iver, and now occupies about a mile of the 
bank. It is at the junction of the Klondyke Eiver 
with the Yukon River. It is here where the most 
valuable mining claims are being operated on a scale 
of profit that the world has hitherto never known. 
The entire country surrounding is teeming with 
mineral wealth. 

Copper, silver and coal can be found in large 
quantities, but little or no attention is now being 
paid to these valuable minerals, as every one is en- 
gaged in gold-hunting and working the extraordinary 
placer mining claims already located. 

The entire section is given up to placer mining. 
Very few claims had been filed for quartz mining. 
The fields of ffold will not be exhausted in the near 
future. No man can tell what the end will be. 
From January to April, 1897, about 11,000,000 were 
taken out of the few placer claims then being 
worked. This was done in a territory not exceed- 
ing forty square miles. All these claims are located 
on Klondyke Eiver and the little tributaries empty- 
ing into it, and the districts are known as Big 
Bonanza, Gold Bottom and Honker. 

I have asked old and experienced miners at 
Dawson, City wdio mined through California in Bo- 
nanza days, and some who mined in Australia, what 



KLONDYKE NUGGETS. 



they thought of the Klondyke region, and their re- 
ply has invariably been, "The world never saw so 
vast and rich a find of gold as we are working now." 
Dawson City is destined to be the greatest mining 
camp in the history of mining operations. 



KL OND YKE JV UGGETS. 



CHAPTEE II. 



K I. OND YKE FACTS, 



There is a great popular error in reference to the 
climate of the gold regions. Many reports have 
appeared in the newspapers which are misleading. 
It has been even stated that the cold is excessive 
almost throughout the year. This is entirely a 
mis-statement. 

I have found I have suffered more from winter 
cold in Northern New York than I ever did in 
Alaska or the Canadian Northwest. 

I have chopped wood in my shirt- sleeves in front 
of my door at Dawson City when the thermometer 
Avas TO degrees below zero, and I suffered no incon- 
venience. We account for this from the fact that 
the air is very dry. It is a fact that you do not 
feel this low temperature as much as you would 15 
below zero in the East. 

We usually have about three feet of snoAV in 
winter and it is as dry as sawdust. 

As we have no winter thaws no crust forms on 
the snow", therefore we travel from the various 
points that may be necessary with snowshoes. These 
may be purchased from the Indians in the vicinity 
of Dawson City at from $5.00 to $10.00 per pair 
according to the quality. 



KLONDYKE NUGGETS, 9 

The winter days are very short. In this region 
there are only two hours from sunrise to sunset. 
The sun rises and sets away in the south but there 
is no pitch darkness. 

The twihght lasts all night and the IS'orthern 
Lights are very common. Then in summer it is 
exactly the other way. The day there in July is 
about twenty hours long. The sun rising and set- 
ting in the north. A great deal has been said 
about the short seasons, but as a matter of fact a 
miner can work 12 months in the year when in that 
region. 

Spring opens about May 1st and the ice com- 
mences to break up about that time. The Yukon 
Eiver is generally clear of ice about May 15. The 
best part of the miner's work commences then and 
lasts till about October 1st. 

The winter commences in October but the miner 
keeps on working through the winter. The rainy 
season commences in the latter part of August and 
lasts two or three weeks. 

A fall of two feet of snow is considered heavy. 

There is a wide difference in the quantity of snow 
that accumulates on the coast and the ranges in the 
interior where the principal mining claims are 
located. 

While the fall of snow on the coast is heavy the 
depth of snow as far down as the Yukon, Stewart 
and Klondyke rivers is inconsiderable. 

In my new work on this territory entitled " Klon- 
dyke Facts " I deal more largely on the climate of 
this region. 



10 KLONDYKE NUGGETS. 

There are still good diggings at Circle City in 
Alaska, but nearly all the miners have left for Klon- 
dyke, not being satisfied with the pay dirt ^Yllich 
they were Avorking. I know at least 20 good claims 
in Circle City. 

Fort Cudahy, or as it is sometimes called Forty 
Mile Creek, is now practically exhausted as a mining 
camp, and the miners have left for ether diggings. 

There will undoubtedly be new and valuable dig- 
gings discovered very quickly along this region as 
it is certain that this enormous territory is rich in 
gold-bearing districts. 

The entire country is teeming with mineral 
wealth. 

When mining operations commence on coal it 
will be specially valuable for steamers on the various 
rivers and greatly assist transportation facilities. 

In the next few years tbere will certainly be 
recorded the most marvellous discoveries in this 
territory, usually thought to be only a land of snow 
and ice and fit only to be classed with the Arctic 
regions. 

It is marvellous to state that for some years past 
we have been finding gold in occasional places in 
this territory, but from the poverty of the people no 
effort was made to prospect among the places re- 
ported. 

It is my belief that the greatest finds of gold will 
be made in this territory. It is safe to say that 
not 2 per cent, of all the gold discovered so far has 
been on United States soil. 

The great mass of the work has been done on tlie 



KLONBYKE NUGGETS. H 

Northwest territory, which is under the Canadian 
Government. 

It is possible however that further discoveries Avill 
be made on American soil, but it is my opinion that 
the most valuable discoveries will be further east 
and south of the present claims, and would advise 
prospectors to work east and south of Klondyke. 



12 KLONBYKE FACTS. 



THE YUKON RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 

" What the Amazon is to South America^, the Mississippi 
to the central portion of the United States, the Yukon is 
to Alaska. It is a great inland highway, which will make 
it possible for the explorer to penetrate the mysterious fast- 
nesses of that still unknown region. The Yukon has its 
source in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia and 
the Coast Range Mountains in southeastern Ah^ska, about 
125 miles from the city of Juneau, which is the j^resent 
metropolis of Alaska. But it is only known as the Yukon 
River at the point where the Pelly River, the branch that 
heads in British Columbia, meets with the Lewes River, 
which heads in southeastern Alaska. This point of con- 
fluence is at Fort Selkirk, in the Northwest Territory, 
about 125 miles southeast of the Klondyke. The Yukon 
proper is 2,044 miles in length. From Fort Selkirk it 
flows northwest 400 miles, just touching the Arctic circle ; 
thence southward for a distance of 1,600 miles, where it 
empties into Behring Sea. It drains more than 600,000 
square miles of territory, and discharges one-third more 
water into Behring Sea than does the Mississippi into the 
Gulf of Mexico. At its moutli it is sixty miles wide. 
About 1,500 miles inland it widens out from one to ten 
miles. A thousand . islands send the channel in as many 
different directions. Only natives who are thoroughly 
familiar with the river are entrusted with the piloting of 
boats up the stream during the season of low water. Even 
at tlie season of high water it is still so shallow as not to 
be navigable anywhere by seagoing vessels, but only by flat- 
bottomed boats with a carrying capacity of four to five 
hundred tons. The draft of steamers on the Yukon 
should not exceed three and a half feet. 



KLONBYKE FACTS. 13 

^^ The Yukon district, which is within the jurisdiction 
of the Canadian Government and in which the bulk of the 
gold has been found, has a total area, approximately, of 
192,000 square miles, of which 150,768 square miles are 
included in the watershed of the Yukon. Illustrating this, 
so that it may appeal with definiteness to the reader, it 
may be said that this territory is greater by 71,100 square 
miles than tlie area of Great Britain, and is nearly three 
times tliat of al) the New England States combined. 

** A further fact must be borne in mind. The Yukon 
River is absolutely closed to navigation during the 
winter montlis. In the winter the frost-king asserts his 
dominion and locks up all approaches with impenetrable 
ice, and the summer is of the briefest. It endures only 
for twelve to fourteen weeks, from about the first of 
June to the middle of September. Then an unend- 
ing panorama of extraordinary picturesqueness is unfolded 
to the voyager. The banks are fringed with flowers, 
carpeted with the all-pervading moss or tundra. Birds 
countless in numbers and of inSnite variety in plumage, 
sing out a welcome from every treetop. Pitch your tent 
where you will in midsummer, a bed of roses, a clump of 
poppies and a bunch of bluebells will adorn your camping. 
But high above this paradise of almost tropical exuberance 
giant glaciers sleep in the summit of the mountain wall, 
which rises up from a bed of roses. By September every- 
thing is changed. The bed of roses has disappeared be- 
fore the icy breath of the winter king, which sends the 
thermometer down sometimes to seventy degrees below 
freezing point. The birds fly to the southland and the 
bear to his sleeping chamber in the mountains. Every 
stream becomes a sheet of ice, mountain and valley alike are 
covered with snow till the following May. 

^' That part of the basin of the Yukon in which gold in 
greater or less quantities has actually been found lies partly 



14 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

in Alaska and partly in British territor3\ It covers an area 
of some 50,000 square miles. But so far the infinitely 
richest spot lies some one hundred miles east of the 
American boundary, ni the region drained by the Klondyke 
and its tributaries. This is some three hundred miles by 
river from Circle City. 

^' AYe have described some of the beauties of the Yukon 
basin in the summer season, but this radiant picture lias 
its obverse side. 

" Horseflies, gnats and mosquitoes add to the joys of liv- 
ing throughout the entire length of the Yukon valley. 
The horsefly is larger and more poignantly assertive than 
the insect which we know by that name. In dressing or 
undressing, it has a j^leasant habit of detecting any bare 
spot in the body and biting out a piece of flesh, leaving a 
wound which a few days later looks like an incipient boil. 
Schwatka reports that one of his party, so bitten was com- 
pletely disabled for a week. ' At the moment of infliction.' 
he adds, ^ it was hard to believe that one was not disabled 
for life.' 

" The mosquitoes according to the same authority are 
equally distressing. They are especially fond of cattle, 
but without any reciprocity of affection. ' According to 
the general terms of the survival of the fittest and the 
growth of muscles most used to the detriment of others,' 
says the lieutenant in an unusual burst of humor, ^a band 
of cattle inhabiting this district, in the far future, would be 
all tail and no body, unless the mosquitoes should experience 
a change of numbers.'" 

I am indebted to Wm. Ogilvie, Esq., for the following 
valuable information relative to The Yukon District. 

'^ The Yukon District comprises, speaking generally, that 
part of the Xorthwest Territories lying west of the water 
shed of the Mackenzie River ; most of it is drained by the 
Yukon Kiver and its tributaries. It covers a distance 



KLOXDYKE FACTS. 15 

of about 650 miles along the river from the coast range of 
mountains. 

^' In 1848 Campbell established Fort Selkirk at the conflu- 
ence of the Pelly and Lewes Eivers ; it was plundered and 
destroyed in 1852 by the Coast Indians, and only the ruins 
now exist of what was at one time the most important post 
of the Hudson's Bay Company to the west of the Eocky 
Mountains in the far north. In 1869 the Hudson^s Bay 
Company's officer was expelled from Fort Yukon by the 
United States Government, they having ascertained by as- 
tronomical observations that the post was not located in 
British territory. The officer thereupon ascended the 
Porcupine to a point which was supposed to be within 
British jurisdiction, where he established Rampart House ; 
but in 1890 Mr. J. H. Turner of the United States Coast 
Survey found it to be 20 miles within the lines of the 
United States. Consequently in 1891 the post was moved 
20 miles further up the river to be within British territory. 

"The next people to enter the country for trading pur- 
poses were Messrs. Harper and McQuestion. They have 
been trading in the country since 1873 and have occupied 
numerous posts all along the river, the greater number of 
which have been abandoned. Mr. Harper is now located 
as a trader at Fort Selkirk, with Mr. Joseph Ladue under 
the firm name of Harper & Ladue, and Mr. McQuestion is 
in the employ of the Alaska Commercial Company at 
Circle City, which is the distributing point for the vast 
regions surrounding Birch Creek, Alaska. In 1882 a 
number of miners entered the Yukon country by the 
Taiya Pass ; it is still the only route used to any extent by 
the miners, and is shorter than the other passes thougli 
not the lowest. In 1883 Lieutenant Schwatka^ crossed 
this same pass and descended the Lewes and Yukon 
Rivers to the ocean. 

"' The explorers found that in proximity to the boundary 



IG KLONDYKE FACTS. 

line there existed extensive and valuable placer gold mines, 
in which even then as many as three hundred miners 
were at work. Mr. Ogilvie determined, by a series of lunar 
observations, the point at which the Yukon Eiver is in- 
tersected by the 141st meridian, and marked the same on 
the ground. He also determined and marked the point at 
which the western affluent of the Yukon, known as Forty 
Mile Creek, is crossed by the same meridian line, that 
point being situated at a distance of about twenty-three 
miles from the mouth of the creek. This survey proved 
that the place which had been selected as the most con- 
venient, owing to the physical conformation of the region, 
from which to distribute the supplies imported for the 
various mining camps, and from which to conduct the 
other business incident to the mining operations — a place 
situate at the confluence of the Forty Mile Creek and the 
Yukon, and to which the name of Fort Cudahy has been 
given — is well within Canadian territory. The greater 
proportion of the mines then being worked Mr. Ogilvie 
found to be on the Canadian side of the international 
boundary line, but he reported the- existence of some min- 
ing fields to the south, the exact position of which with 
respect to the boundary he did not have the opportunity 
to fix. 

'^ The number of persons engaged in mining in the 
locality mentioned has steadily increased year by year since 
the date of Mr. Ogilvie's survey, and it is estimated that at 
the commencement of tlie past season not less than one 
thousand men were so employed. Incident to this mineral 
development there must follow a corresponding growth in 
the volume of business of all descrijotions, particularly the 
importation of dutiable goods, and the occupation of tracts 
of the public lands for mining purposes which according 
to the mining regulations are subject to the payment of 
certain prescribed dues and charges. The Alaska Com- 



KLONDYKE FACTS. 17 

mercial Company, for many years subsequent to the retire- 
ment of the Hudson^s Bay Company, had a practical 
monopoly of the trade of the Yukon, carrying into the 
country and delivering at various points along the river, 
without regard to the international boundary line or the 
customs laws and regulations of Canada, such articles of 
commerce as were required for the prosecution of the fur 
trade and latterly of placer mining, these being the only 
two existing industries. With the discovery of gold, how- 
ever, came the organization of a competing company known 
as the North American Transportation and Trading Com- 
pany, having its headquarters in Chicago and its chief 
trading and distributing post at Cudahy. This company 
has been engaged in this trade for over three years, and 
during the past season despatched two ocean steamers 
from San Francisco to St. Michael, at the mouth of the 
Yukon, the merchandise from which was, at the last men- 
tioned point, transhipped into river steamers and carried 
to points inland, but chiefly to the company^s distributing 
centre within Canadian territory. Importations of con- 
siderable value, consisting of the immediately requisite 
supplies of the miners, and their tools, also reach the 
Canadian portion of the Yukon District from Juneau, in 
the United States, by way of the Taiya Inlet, the mountain 
passes, and the chain of waterways leading therefrom to 
Cudahy. Upon none of these importations had any duty 
been collected, except a sum of 13,248.80 paid to Inspector 
Constantino in 1894, by the North American Transporta- 
tion and Trading Company and others, and it is safe to 
conclude, especially when it is remembered that the coun- 
try produces none of the articles consumed within it ex- 
cept fresh meat, that a large revenue was being lost to 
the public exchequer under the then existing conditions. 

^' For the purpose of ascertaining officially and author- 
itatively tlie condition of alTaiivj to which the correspond- 



18 KL ONB YKE FA CTS, 

euce referred to in the next preceding paragraph relates, 
the Honorable the President of the Privy Conncil, dur- 
ing the spring of 1894, despatched Inspector Charles Con- 
stantine, of the Northwest Mounted Police Force, accom- 
panied by Sergeant Brown, to Fort Cudahy and the 
mining camps in its vicinity. The report made by Mr. 
Constantine on his return, established the substantial 
accuracy of the representations already referred to. The 
vahie of the total output of gold for the season of 1894 he 
estimated at $300,000. 

'' The facts recited clearly establish — first, that the time 
had arrived when it became the duty of the Government 
of Canada to make more efficient provision for the main- 
tenance of order, the enforcement of the laws, and the 
administration of justice in the Yukon country, especially 
in that section of it in which placer mining for gold is be- 
ing prosecuted upon such an extensive scale, situated near 
to the boundary separating the Northwest Territories from 
the possessions of the United States in Alaska ; and, 
second, that while such measures as were necessary to that 
end were called for in the interests of humanity, and par- 
ticularly for the security and safety of the lives and property 
of the Canadian subjects of Her Majesty resident in that 
country who are engaged in legitimate business pursuits, 
it was evident that the revenue justly due to the Govern- 
ment of Canada, under its customs, excise and land laws, 
and which would go a long way to pay the expenses of 
government, Avas being lost for the want of adequate 
machinery for its collection. 

"Accordingly in June last a detachment* of twenty 
members of the Mounted Police Force including officers 

* The detachment was made up as follows : — Inspector C. Con- 
stantine, Officer Commanding Yukon Detachment N. W. M. 
Police ; Inspector, D. A. E. Strickland ; Assistant Surgeon, A. E. 
Wills ; 3 Staff Sergeants ; 2 Corporals ; 13 Constables. 



KLONDYKE FACTS. 19 

was detailed for service in that portion of the Northwest 
Territories. The officer in command, in addition to the 
magisterial and other duties he is required to perform by 
virtue of his office and under instructions from the Depart- 
ment of Mounted Police, was duly authorized to represent 
where necessary, and nntil other arrangements can be 
made, all the departments of the government having in- 
terests in that region. Particularly he is authorized to 
perform the dnties of Dominion lands agent, collector of 
customs, and collector of inland revenue. At the same 
time instructions were given Mr. William Ogilvie, the sur- 
veyor referred to as having, with Dr. Dawson, been en- 
trusted with the conduct of the first government expedi- 
tion to the Yukon, to proceed again to that district for the 
purpose of continuing and extending the work of deter- 
mining the 141st meridian, of laying out building lots and 
mining claims, and generally of performing such duties as 
may be entrusted to him from time to time. Mr. Ogilvie's 
qualifications as a surveyor, and his previous experience 
as explorer of this section of the Northwest, peculiarly fit 
him for the task. 

'^ As it a])pears quite certain, from the report made by 
Mr. Ogilvie on his return to Ottawa, in 1889, and from 
the report of Mr. Constantine, that the operations of the 
miners are being conducted upon streams which have their 
sources in the United States Territory of Alaska, and flow 
into Canada on their way to join the Yukon, and as doubt- 
less some of the placer diggings under development are 
situated on the United States side of the boundary it is 
highly desirable, both for the purpose of settling definitely 
to which country any land occupied for mining or other 
purposes actually belongs, and in order that the jurisdic- 
tion of the courts and officers of the United States and 
Canada, for both civil and criminal purposes, may be estab- 
lished, that the determination of the 141st meridian west 



20 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

of Greenwich from the point of its intersection with the 
Yukon^ as marked by Mr. Ogilvie in 1887-88, for a con- 
siderable distance south of the river, and possibly also for 
some distance to the north, should be proceeded with at 
once. Mr. Ogilvie^s instructions require him to go on with 
the survey with all convenient speed, but in order that this 
work may be effective for the accomplishment of the object 
in view the co-operation of the Government of the United 
States is necessary. Correspondence is in progress through 
the proper authorities with a view to obtaining this co- 
operation. It may be mentioned that a United States 
surveyor has also determined the points at which the 
Yukon Eiver and Forty Mile Creek are intersected by the 
14st meridian." 



KLONDYKE FACTS. 21 



CHAPTER II. 

ROUTES, DTSTAN^CES, AND TRANSPORTATION. 

After considerable experience I have decided that the 
best route for a man to take to the gold regions is from 
Seattle, Washington, to Juneau, Alaska, and then to Daw- 
son City, by the pass and waterways, and I will therefore 
describe this route more in detail than any of the others. 

I am devoting a special chapter to the outfit for travellers, 
and will therefore deal in this chapter with the route only. 

The traveller having paid his fare to Seattle should 
on arrival there have not less than $500. This is the 
minimum sum necessary to pay his fare from Seattle to 
Juneau, purchase his outfit and supplies for one year and 
pay his necessary expenses in the gold region for that length 
of time. 

I think it deplorable that so many are starting at this time 
for the gold-fields. I do not recommend starting before 
March 15. I will return at that time to my claims on the 
Klondyke, if it were wise to go sooner, I should certainly 
go. 

The reason March 15 is best is that the season is better 
then. If a man has only, say, $500 and wants to do his 
own packing over the Taiya Pass, it gives him time to do it 
by starting March 15, as he will then be in Juneau April 
1st. I fear a great deal of hardship for those who started 
out so as to reach Juneau for winter travel. 

Of course while I say $500 is sufficient to go to Daw- 
son City, a man should take 11^000 or even more if pos- 



22 KLOXDVKE FACTS. 

sible as lie will have many opportunities to invest the 
surplus. 

While prices will undoubtedl}^ advance at Dawson City 
owing to the large influx of people, I do not think the ad- 
vance will be excessive. It has never been the policy of 
the two tradiiig companies to take advantage of the miners. 

The traveller having arrived in Juneau from Seattle, a 
journey of 725 miles by water, immediately purchases his 
complete outfit as described in another chapter. He then 
loses no time in leaving Juneau for Dyea, taking a small 
steamboat which runs regularly to this port via the Lynn 
Canal. Dyea has recently been made a customs port of 
entry and the head of navigation this side of the Taiya 
Pass. The distance between Juneau and Dyea is about one 
hundred miles. 

From Dyea, which is the timber-line, he packs his outfit 
to the foot of the Taiya Pass— the length of which to the 
summit is about 15 miles. lie must now carry his outfit 
up the Pass, which he generally does in two or more trips 
according to the weight of his outfit, unless he is able 
hire Indians or mules ; but so far there are very few to 
Indians to be hired and still fewer mules. 

He now starts for Lake Lindeman from the head of the 
Pass, a distance of eight miles— the distance from Dyea to 
Lake Lindeman being 31 miles. 

At Lake Lindeman he commences to make his boat, for 
which he has brought the proper supplies in his outfit, 
with the exception of the timber, which he finds at Lake 
lindeman. He spends one week at Lake Lindeman mak- 
ing his boat and getting ready for the long trip down the 
waterways to Dawson City, the heart of the Klondyke re- 
gion. The trip through Lake Lindeman is short, the 
lake being only five miles long. At the foot of the lake 
he must portage to Lake Bennet, the portage however be- 
ing very short, less than a mile. 



KLONDTKE FACTS. 23 

Lake Bennct is 28 inilcs lung, while going through tins 
ako tlie travel er crosses the boundary between British 
Columbia and the Korthwest Territory 

After going down .I.,ke Bennet the traveller comes to 
Caribou Crossiiig-about four miles long, which takes him 
to Lake lagish, twenty miles in length. After leayiuo- 
lagish he finds himself in Mnd or Marsh Lake, U miles 
long, then into the Lyn.x River, on which he continues for 
27 miles till he comes to Miles Canyon, five-eighths of a 
mile long. ° 

Immediately on leaving Miles Canyon lie has three miles 
of what IS called bad river work, which, while not hazard- 
ous, IS dangerous from the swift current and from being 
very rocky. Great care has to be taken in going down this 
part 01 the river. 

He now finds himself in White Horse Canvon the rapids 
of whioli are three-eighths of a mile in length and one of 
the most dangerous places on the trip, a man is here 
guarded by a sign, "Keep a good lookout." 

No stranger or novice should try to run tlie White Horse 
Rapids alone m a boat. He should let his boat drop down 
the river guided by a rope with whicli he has provided 
himself ni his outfit and which should be 150 feet long 
It would be better if tlie traveller should portage here the 
miners haying constructed a portage road on the west side 
and put down roller-ways in some places on which they 
roll their boats over. They have also made some wind- 
lasses with which they haul their boat up the hill till they ' 
are at the foot of the canyon. The White Horse Canyon 
is^very rocky and dangerous and the current extremely 

After leaving the White Horse Canyon he goes down the 
river to the head of Lake Labarge, a distance of U miles 
He can sit down and steer with the currc::t, as \-,c h goina 
down the stream all the way. It is for this reason that in 



24 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

returning from tlio diggings lie should take miotlier route, 
of which he will get full particulars before leaving Dawson ; 
therefore I do not take the time to give a full description 
of the return trip via the Yukon to St. Michael. He now 
goes through Lake Labarge — for 31 miles — till he strikes 
the Lewes Eiver, this taking him down to Ilootalinqua. 
He is noAV in the Lewes lliver which takes him for 25 miles 
to Big Salmon River and from Big Salmon River 45 miles 
to Little Salmon River — the current all fhis time taking 
him down at the rate of five miles an hour. Of course in 
the canyons it is very much swifter. 

The Little Salmon River takes him to Five Finger 
Rapids, a distance of one hundred and twenty miles. In 
the Five Finger Rapids the voyage should be made on the 
right side of the river, going with the current. These 
rapids are considered safe by careful management, but the 
novice will already have had sufficient ex2:)erience in guid- 
ing his boat before reaching them. 

From Five Finger Rapids the traveller goes six miles 
below, down the Lewes, to the Rink Rajiids. On going 
through the Rink Rapids, he continues on the Lewes River 
to Fort Selkirk, the trading post of Harper and Ladue, 
where the Pelly and Lewes, at their junction, form the 
headwaters of the Yukon. You are now at the head of 
the Yukon River, and the worst part of your trip is over. 

You now commence to go down the Yukon, and after a 
trip of ninety-eight miles, you are in the White River. 
You keep on the AVhite River for ten miles, to the Stewart 
River, and then twenty-five miles to Fort Ogilvie. You 
are noAV only forty miles from Dawson City. 

Your journey is now almost ended. After a forty-mile 
trip on the Yukon, you arrive at Dawson City, where the 
Klondyke empties in the Yukon. 

All through this trip you have been going through a 
mountainous country, the trees there being pine, a small 



KLONDYKE FACTS. 25 

amount of sjn'uce, cottonwood and birch. You have not 
seen much game, if any, as it is growing scarce along that 
line of river, and very hard to find. The traveller had 
therefore better make preparation to depend on the pro- 
visions he has brought with him. If he has stopped to 
fish, he may have been successful in catching whitefish, 
grayling and lake trout, along the lakes and rivers. 

The total journey from Seattle to Dawson City has taken 
about two months. In connection with this trip from 
Juneau to Dawson City, it is perhaps better to give the 
reader the benefit of the trip of Mr. William Stewart, 
who writes from Lake Lindeman, May 31st, 1897, as fol- 
lows : — 

" We arrived here at the south end of the lake last night 
by boat. We have had an awful time of it. The Taiya 
Pass is not a pass at all, but a climb right over the moun- 
tains. We left Juneau on Thursday, the twentieth, on 
a little boat smaller than the ferry at Ottawa. Tliere were 
over sixty aboard, all in one room about ten by fourteen. 
There was baggage piled up in one end so that the floor- 
space v/as only about eight by eight. We went aboard 
about three o^clock in the afternoon and went ashore at 
Dyea at seven o'clock Friday night. We got the Indians 
to pack all our stuff up to the summit, but about fifty 
pounds each ; I had forty-eight pounds and my gun. 

" We left Dyea, an Indian village, Sunday, but only got 
up the river one mile. We towed all the stuff up the 
river seven miles, and then packed it to Sheep Camp. 
We reached Sheep Camp about seven o'clock at niglit, 
on the Queen's Birthday. A beautiful time we had, I can 
tell you, climbing hills with fifty pounds on our backs. 
It would not be so bad if we could strap it on rightly. 

^^We left Sheep Camp next morning at four o'clock, 
and reached the summit at half-past seven. It was an 
awful climb — an angle of about fifty-five degrees. AVe 



26 KLONUYKE FACTS. 

could keep our hands touching tlie trail all the way up. 
It was blowing and snowing u]) there. AVe paid off the 
Indians, and got some sleighs and sleighed the stuff down 
the hill. This hill goes down pretty swift, and then drops 
at an angle of fifty-five degrees for about forty feet, and 
we had to rough-lock our sleighs and let them go. There 
was an awful fog, and we could not see where we were 
going. Some fcllovrs hcl^^ed us down with the first load, 
or there would have been nothing left of us. When we 
let a sleigh go from the top it jumps about fifty feet clear, 
and comes down in pieces. We loaded up the sk^.iglis with 
some of our stuff, about two hundred and twenty-five 
pounds each, and started across the hxkes. Tlie trail was 
awful, and we waded through water and slush two and 
three feet deep. We got to the mouth of the canyon at 
about eight o'clock at night, done out. We left there that 
night, and pushed on again until morning. We got to 
the bottom of an awful hill, and packed all our stuff from 
there to the hifl above the lake. We had about two and 
a half miles over hills, in snow and slush. I carried about 
five hundred pounds over that part of the trail. AVe had 
to get dogs to bring the stuff down from the summit to 
the head of the canyon. 

AVe worked tv/o diiys bringing the stuff over from the 
canyon to the hill above the lake. Saturday we worked all 
day packing down the hill to the lake, and came here on 
a scow. We were out yesterday morning cutting down 
trees to build a boat. The timber is small, and I don't 
think we can get more than four-inch stuff. It rained all 
afternoon, and we couldn't do anything. There are about 
fifty boats of all sorts on Lake Bennet, which is about half 
a mile from here. I have long rubber boots up to the hips, 
and I did not have them oncoming from the summit down, 
but I have worn them ever since. 

We met Barwell and Lewis, of Ottawa, to-day. They 



ELONDYKE FACTS. 27 

were out looking for knees for their boats. They left 
Ottawa six weeks ago^ and have not got any farther than 
we have. There was a little saw-mill going here^, and they 
have their lumber sawn. We have it that warm some days 
here that you would fairly roast^ and the next day you 
would be looking for your overcoat. Everybody here 
seems to be taking in enough food to do them a couple of 
years. 

We are now in Canadian territory, after we passed the 
summit. I will have to catch somebody going through to 
Dyea to give him this letter, but I don^t know how long 
before I can get any one going through. This is the last 
you will hear from me until I get down to the Klon- 
dyke.'' 

Mr. Stewart adds : ^' I wrote this in the tent at 11 o'clock 
at night during twilight." 

If you take this trip in winter, however, you have to ^^ur- 
.chase a sled at Juneau, and sled it over the frozen water- 
ways to Dawson City. 

For the benefit of my readers in Canada and for parties 
leaving for the great Xorthwest Territory for the gold fields, 
I take pleasure in quoting the following description of a 
Canadian route : — 

'^ Canadians should awaken to the fact that they have 
emphatically ' the inside track ' to their own gold fields, 
a route not half the distance, largely covered by railways 
and steamboats, with supply stations at convenient inter- 
vals all the way. By this route the gold-fields can be 
reached in two months or six weeks, and the cost of travel 
is ridiculously cheap — nearly anybody can afford to go even 
now, and by the spring it should be fitted out for the ac- 
commodation of any amount of traffic. 

The details of the information in the following article 
are given by Mr. A. II. H. Heming, the artist who ac- 



28 KLONBYKE FACTS. 

companied Mr. Whitney in his journey towards the Barren i 
LandS;, and the data may be accepted as correct, as they 
were secured from the Hudson Bay officials. 

The details of the inland Canadian route, briefly, are as ! 
follows : By C. P. R. to Calgary, and thence north by 
rail to Edmonton ; from there by stage to Athabasca Land- 
ing, 40 miles ; then, there is a continuous waterway for 
canoe travel to Fort Macpherson, at the mouth of the 
Mackenzie River, from which point the Peel River lies 
southward to the gold region. The exact figures are as 
follows : 

MILES. 

Edmonton to Athabasca Landing 40 

To Fort McMurray \ 240 

Fort Chippewyan 185 

Smith Landing 102 

Fort Smith 16 

Fort Resolution 194 

Fort Providence 168 

Fort Simpson 161 

Fort AYrigiey 136 

Fort Norman 184 

Fort Good Hope 174 

Fort Macpherson 282 

Total 1882 

There are only two portages on this route of any size — 
that from Edmonton to Athabasca Landing, over which 
there is a stage and wagon line, and at Smith Landing, six- 
teen miles, over wliicli the Hudson Bay Company has a tram- 
way. There are four or five other portages of a few hun- 
dred yards, but with these exceptions there is a fine " down 
grade" water route all the way. It is the old Hudson 
Bay trunk line to the north that has been in use for nearly 



KLONDYKE FACTS. 29 

a century. AVlierever there is a lake or a long stretch of 
deep water river navigation the company has small freight 
steamers which ply back and forward during tlie summer 
between the portage points or shallows. With compara- 
tively little expenditure the company or the Government 
can improve the facilities along the line so that any amount 
of freight or any number of passengers can be taken into 
the gold region at less than half the time and cost that it 
takes Americans to reach it from Port St. Michael, at the 
mouth of the Yukon to the Klondyke, exclusive of the 
steamer trip of 2500 miles from Seattle to Port St. 
Michael. 

Canadians can leave here on a Monday at 11.15 A.M., 
and reach Edmonton on Friday at 7 p.m. From that 
point, a party of three men with a canoe, should reach Fort 
Macpherson easily in from 50 to GO days, provided they 
are able-bodied young fellows with experience in that sort 
of travel. They will need to take canoes from here, unless 
they propose to hire Indians with large birch bark canoes 
to carry them. Birch bark canoes can be secured of any 
size up to the big ones manned by ten Indians that carry 
three tons. But birch barks are not reliable unless Indians 
are taken along to doctor them, and keep them from get- 
ting water-logged. The Hudson Bay Company will also 
contract to take freight northward on their steamers until 
the close of navigation. Travellers to the gold mines 
leaving now would probably reach Fort Macjiherson before 
navigation closed. 

The letter from Rev. ^[r. Stringer, the missionary, pub- 
lished in the Spectator on July 2, shows that the ice had 
only commenced to run in the Peel River, which is the 
w^ater route south-east from Fort Macpherson into the gold 
region, on September 30 last year. 

Any Canadians who are anxious to get into the Klon- 
dyke ahead of the Americans can leave between now and 



30 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

August 1, reacli Fort Macphersoii, and if winter comes oni 
they can exchange their canoes for dog trains, and reach 
the Klondyke without half the difficulty tliat would he 
experienced on the Alaska route. The great advantage of 
the inland route is that it is an organized line of communi- 
cation. Travellers need not carry any more food than 
will take them from one Hudson Bay post to the next, and 
then there is abundance of fish and wild fowl en route. 
They can also be in touch with such civilization asi^revails 
up there, can always get assistance at the posts, and will 
have some place to stay should they fall sick or meet wdth 
an accident. If they are lucky enough to make their pile 
in the Klondyke, they can come back by the dog sled 
route during the winter. (There is one winter mail to 
Fort Macpherson in winter.) Dogs for teams can be pur- 
chased at nearly any of the line of Hudson Bay posts that 
form a chain of road-houses on the trip. 

Parties travelling alone will not need to employ guides 
until they get near Fort Macpherson, and from there on 
to the Klondyke, as the rest of the route from Edmonton 
is so well defined, having been travelled for years, that no 
guides are required. 

You don't need a couple of thousand dollars to start for 
Klondyke to-morroAV by the Edmonton route. All you 
need is a good constitution, some experience in boating 
and camping, and about $150. Suppose a party of three 
decide to start. First they Avill need to purchase a canoe, 
about 135 or less ; first-class ticket from Hamilton to Ed- 
monton, 171.40 ; second class, ditto, '*40.90 ; cost of food 
at Edmonton for three men for two months (should consist 
of pork, flour, tea and baking-powder), .t'35 ; freight on 
canoe to Edmonton, $:io. Total for three men from Ham- 
ilton to Fort Macpherson, provided they travel second- 
class on the C. P. Pv. will bo |-218.70. These figures are 
furnished by Mr. Heming, who has been over the route 



KLONDTKE FACTS. 31 

400 miles north of Edmonton, and got the rest of his data 
from tlie Hudson Bay officials. - 

If three men chip in $150 each they would have a mar- 
gin of over $200 for purchasing their tools and for trans- 
port from Fort Macpherson to the Klondyke. This is how 
it may be done on the cheap, though Mr. Heming con- 
siders it ample for any party starting this summer. Prices 
will likely rise on the route when the rush begins. If the 
Hudson Bay people are alive to their interests they will 
forward a large amount of supplies for Fort Macpherson 
immediately and make it the base of supplies for the Klon- 
dyke during the coming winter. 

Parties should consist of three men each, as 'that is the 
crew of a canoe. It will take (300 pounds of food to carry 
three men over the route. Passengers on the 0. P. K. 
are entitled to carry GOO pounds of baggage. The paddling 
is all down stream, except when they turn south up Peel 
River, and sails should be taken, as there is often a favor- 
able wind for days. 

There are large scows on the line, manned by ten men 
each and known as ' sturgeon heads. ^ They are like 
canal boats, but are punted along and are used by the 
Hudson Bay people for taking forward supplies to the 
forts. 

The return trip to tlie United States is usually made 
by the Yukon steamers from Dawson City direct to 8t. 
Michael via the Yukon and Anvik liiver, thence by ocean 
steamer from 8t. Michael to San Francisco.''' 

The following letter is interesting to the prospector as 
showing the difficulties to overcome up the Taij^a Pass to 
Lake Lindeman. 

Winnipeg, July 27, 1897. 
A letter has been received from George McLeod, one of 
the members of the Winnipeg party of gold hunters that 



32 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

left licru recently for the Yukon. He wrote from Lake 
Linclcman under date of July 4, and states that the party 
expected to leave on the journey from the river a week 
later. They had a fine boat, with a freight capacity of 
two tons about completed. The real work of the expedi- 
tion started when the small steamer which conveyed the 
party from Juneau arrived at Dyea. Tlie men had to 
transfer their goods to a lighter one mile from shore, each 
man looking after his own packages. After getting every- 
thing ashore the party was organized for ascent of the 
mountain pass, which at the hardest point is 3,000 feet 
above sea level. McLeod and his chum, to save time and 
money too, engaged 35 Indians to pack their supplies 
over the mountains, but they had to carry their own bed- 
ding and grub to keep them on the road. It is fifteen 
miles to the summit of the pass and the party made twelve 
miles the first day, going into camp at night tired from 
climbing over rocks, stumps, logs and hills, working 
through rivers and creeks and pushing their way through 
brush. At the end of twelve miles they thought they had 
gone fifty. On the second day out they began to scale the 
summit of the mountain. Hill after hill confronted them, 
each one being steeper than the last. There was snow on 
the top of the mountain, and rain was falling, and this added 
greatly to the difficulties of the ascent. In many places 
tlie men had to crawl on their hands and knees, so pre- 
cipitous was the mountain side. Time after time the men 
would slip back several inches, but they recovered them- 
selves and went at it again. 

Finally, the summit was gained, McLeod being the first 
of the party to reach the top. After resting and chang- 
ing their clothes the descent was commenced. McLeod 
and his chums purchased sleighs, on which they loaded 
their goods and hauled for five miles. This was extremely 
laborious work, and the men were so used up working in 



ELONBYKE FACTS. 33 

the scorching sun that they were compelled to work at 
nights and sleep during the day. Two days after the de- 
scent began the sleighs were abandoned, and the men 
packed the goods for three miles and a half. They were 
fortunate in securing the services of a man who had two 
horses to convey the goods to Lake Lindeman. 

McLeod says the worry in getting over the pass is terri- 
ble, and he has no desire to repeat the experience. He 
advises all who go in to have their goods packed all the 
way from Dyea to Lake Lindeman. It costs 17 or 18 
cents per pound for packing. 

McLeod expected that Klondyke would not be reached 
before July 25. 

I think it specially valuable for the reader to give him 
the approximate distances to Fort Cudahy, which is below 
Dawson City via the various routes. 

This table of distances has been prepared by Mr. James 
Ogilvie, and I also give a number of his notes which will 
be of great value to the traveller when making the trip 
from Juneau to Dawson City. 

APPROXIMATE DISTANCES TO FORT CUDAHY. 

VIA ST. MICHAEL. 

Miles. 
San Francisco to Dutch Harbor. ... 2,400 

Seattle or Victoria to Dutch Harbor 2,000 

Dutch Harbor to St. Michael 750 

St. Michael to Cudahy 1,600 

VIA TAIYA PASS. 

Victoria to Taiya 1,000 

Taiya to Cudahy 650 

VIA STIKINE RIVER. 

Victoria to Wrangell 750 

Wrangell to Telegraph Creek 150 

Telegraph Creek to Teslin Lake 150 

Teslin Lake to Cudahv 650 

3 



34 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

DISTANCES FROM HEAD OF TAIYA INLET. 

Miles. 

Head of canoe navigation, Taiya River 5*90 

Forks of Taiya River 8-38 

Summit of Taiya Pass 14-76 

Landing at Lake Lindeman ... 23*06 

Foot of Lake Lindeman 27"49 

Head of Lake Bennet 2809 

Boundary line B. C. and N. W. T. (Lat 60°) 38-09 

Foot of Lake Bennet 53*85 

Foot of Caribou Crossing (Lake Nares) 56*44 

Foot of Tagish Lake 73*25 

Head of Marsh Lake 78*15 

Foot of Marsh Lake 97*21 

Head of Miles Canon 122*94 

Foot of Miles Canon 123*56 

Head of White Horse Rapids , 124-95 

Foot of White Horse Rapids , 125*33 

Tahkeena River 139*92 

Head of Lake Labarge 15307 

Foot of Lake Labarge 184*22 

Teslintoo River 215*88 

Big Salmon River 24933 

Little Salmon River 285*54 

Five Finger Rapids 344*83 

Pelly River 403.29 

White River 499*11 

Stewart River 508*91 

Sixty-Mile Creek 530*41 

Dawson City — The Principal Mining Town 575*70 

Fort Reliance 582*20 

Forty-Mile River 627*08 

Boundary Line 667*43 

'' Anotlier route is now being explored between Telegraph 
Creek and Teslin Lake and will soon be opened. Telegraph 
Creek is the head of steamer navigation on the Stikine 
River and is about 150 miles from Teslin Lake. The 

Yukon is navigable for steamers from its mouth to Teslin 
Lake, a distance of 2,300 miles. A road is being located 



i 



KLONBYKE FACTS. 35 

by the Dominion Government. A grant of 12,000 lias 
been made by the province of British Columbia for open- 
ing it. 

'^ J. Dalton, a trader, has used a route overland from 
Chilkat Inlet to Fort Selkirk. Going up the Chilkat and 
Klaheela Rivers, he crosses the divide to the Tahkeena 
River and continues northward over a fairly open country 
practicable for horses. The distance from the sea to Fort 
Selkirk is 350 riiiles. 

^^ Last summer a Juneau butcher sent 40 head of cattle to 
Cudaliy. G. Bounds, the man in charge, crossed the di- 
vide over the Chilkat Pass, followed the shore of Lake Ar- 
kell and, keeping to the east of Dalton's trail, reached the 
Yukon just below the Rink Rapids. Here the cattle were 
slaughtered and the meat floated down on a raft to Cudahy, 
where it retailed at II a pound. 

^^ It is proposed to establish a winter road somewhere across 
the country travelled over by Dalton and Bounds. The 
Yukon cannot be followed, the ice being too much broken, 
so that any winter road will have to be overland. A 
thorough exploration is now being made of all the passes 
at the head of Lynn Canal and of the upper waters of the 
Yukon. In a few months it is expected that the best routes 
for reaching the district from Lynn Canal will be definitely 
known. 

" It is said by those familiar with the locality that the 
storms which rage in the upper altitudes of the coast range 
during the greater part of the time, from October to March, 
are terrific. A man caught in one of them runs the risk 
of losing his life, unless he can reach shelter in a short 
time. During the summer there is nearly always a wind 
blowing from the sea up Chatham Strait and Lynn Canal, 
which lie in almost a straight line with each other, and 
at the head of Lynn Canal are Chilkat alid Chilkoot Inlets. 
The distance from the coast down these channels to the 



36 KLOyUYKE FACTS. 

ojieii sea is about 380 miles. The mountains on each side 
of the water confine the currents uf air, and deflect inclined 
currents in the direction of the axis of the channel, so 
that there is nearly always a strong wind blowing up the 
channel. Coming from the sea, this Avind is heavily 
charged with moisture, which is precipitated when the air 
currents strike the mountains, and the fall of rain and snow 
is consequently very heavy. 

'' In Chilkat Inlet there is not much shelter from the 
south wind, wliicli renders it unsafe for ships calling 
there. Capt. Hunter told me he would rather visit any 
other part of the coast than Chilkat. 

"To carry the survey from the island across to Chilkoot 
Inlet I had to get up on the mountains north of Haines 
mission, and from there could see both inlets. Owing to 
the bad weather I could get no observation for azimuth, 
and had to ])roduce the survey from Pyramid Island to 
Taiya Inlet by reading the angles of deflection between the 
courses. At Taiya Inlet I got my first observation, and 
deduced the azimuths of my courses up to that point. 
Taiya Inlet has evidently been the valley of a glacier ; its 
sides are steep and smooth from glacial action- ; and this, 
with the wind almost constantly blowing landward, renders 
getting ujDon the shore difiicult. h>ome long sights were 
therefore necessary. The survey Avas made up to the head 
of the Inlet on the 2d of June. Preparations were then 
commenced for taking the supplies and instruments over 
the coast range of mountains to the head of Lake Linde- 
man on the Lewes River. Commander Newell kindly 
aided me in making arrangements with the Indians, and 
did all he could to induce them to be reasonable in their 
demands. This, hoAvever, neither he nor any one else 
could accomplish. They refused to carry to the lake for 
less than 120 per hundred pounds, and as they had learned 
that the expedition was an English one, the second chief 



KLONDYKE FACTS. Sl 

of the Chilkoot Indians recjiUed some memories of an old 
quarrel which the tribe had with the English many years 
ago, in which an uncle of his was killed, and he thonght 
we should pay for the loss of his uncle by being charged an 
exorbitant price for our packing, of which he had the sole 
control. Commander Newell told him I had a permit froin 
the (Jreat Father at Washington to pass through his coun- 
try safely, that he would see that I did so, and if the In- 
dians interfered with me they would be punished for doing 
so. After much talk they consented to carry our stuff to 
the summit of the mountain for 1^10 per hundred pounds. 
This is about two-thirds of the whole distance, includes 
all the climbing and all the woods, and is l)y far the most 
difficult part of the way. 

" On the Gth of June 120 Indians, men, women and chil- 
dren, started for the summit. I sent two of my party with 
them to see the goods deliyered at the 2:)lace agreed upon. 
Each carrier Avhen giyen a 2~)ack also got a ticket, on which 
was inscribed the contents of the pack, its weight, and the 
amount the indiyidual was to get for carrying it. They 
were made to understand that they had to produce these 
tickets on delivering their packs, but were not told for 
what reason. As each pack Avas deliyered one of my men 
receipted the ticket and returned it. The Indians did not 
seem to understand the import of this ; a few of them in-e- 
tended to haye lost their tickets ; and as they could not 
get paid without them, my assistant, who had dujDlicates 
of eyery ticket, furnished them with receipted copies, 
after examining their packs. 

" While they were packing to the summit I was producing 
the suryey, and I met them on their return at the foot of 
the canon, about eight miles from the coast, where I paid 
them. They came to the camp in the early morning before 
I was up, and for about two hours there was quite a hub- 
bub. AVhen paying them I tried to get their names, but 



38 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

very few of them would give any Indian name, nearly all, 
after a little reflection, giving some common English name. 
My list contained little else than Jack, Tom, Joe, Charlie, 
&c. some of which were duplicated three and four times. 
I then found why some of them had pretended to lose 
their tickets at the summit. Three or four who had thus 
acted presented themselves twice for payment, producing 
first the receipted ticket, afterwards the one they claimed 
to have lost, demanding pay for both. They were much 
taken aback when they found that their duplicity had 
been discovered. 

" These Indians are perfectly heartless. They will not 
render even the smallest aid to each other without pay- 
ment ; and if not to each other, much less to a white man. 
I got one of them, whom I had previously assisted with 
his pack, to take me and two of my party over a small 
creek in his canoe. After putting us across he asked for 
money, and I gave him half a dollar. Another man 
stepped up and demanded pay, stating that the canoe was 
his. To see what the result would be, I gave to him the 
same amount as to the first. Immediately there were three 
or four more claimants for the canoe. I dismissed them 
with a blessing, and made up my mind that I would wade 
the next creek. 

" While paying them I was a little apprehensive of trouble, 
for they insisted on crowding into my tent, and for my- 
self and the four men who were with me to have attempted 
to eject them would have been to invite trouble. I am 
strongly of the opinion that these Indians would have been 
much more difficult to deal with if they had not known 
that Commander Newell remained in the inlet to see that 
I got through without accident. 

" AVhile making the survey from the head of tide water I 
took the azimuths and altitudes of several of tlie highest 
peaks around the head of the inlet, in order to locate 



KLONLYKE FACTS. 39 

them, and obtain an idea of the general height of the 
peaks in the coast range. As it does not appear to have 
been done before, I have taken tlie opportunity of naming 
all the peaks, the positions of which I fixed in the above 
way. The names and altitudes appear on my map. 

'^ While going up from the head of canoe navigation on 
the Taiya River I took the angles of elevation of each 
station from the preceding one. I would have done this 
from tide water up, but found many of the courses so short 
and with so little increase in height that with the instru- 
ment I had it was inappreciable. From these angles I 
have computed the height of the summit of the Taiya 
Pass,* above the head of canoe navigation, as it appeared 
to me in June, 1887, and find it to be 3,378 feet. What 
dejith of snow there was I cannot say. The head of canoe 
navigation I estimate at about 120 feet above tide water. 
Dr. Dawson gives it as 124 feet. 

"I determined the descent from the summit to Lake 
Lindeman by carrying the aneroid from the lake to the 
summit and back again, the interval of time from start to 
return being about eight hours. Taking the mean of the 
readings at the lake, start and return, and the single read- 
ing at the summit, the height of the summit above the lake 
was found to be 1,237 feet. While making the survey 
from the summit down to the lake I took the angles of de- 
pression of each station from tlie preceding one, and from 
these angles I deduced tlie difference of height, which I 
found to be 1,354 feet, or 117 feet more than that found 

* The distance from the head of Taiya Inlet to the summit of 
the pass is 15 miles, and the whole length of the pass to Lake 
Lindeman is 23 miles. Messrs. Healy and Wilson, dealers in 
general merchandise and miners' supplies at Taiya, have a train 
of pack horses carrying freight from the head of Lynn Canal to 
the summit. They hope to be able to take freight through to 
Lake Lindeman with their horses during the present season. 



40 KLONBYKE FACTS. 

by the aneroid. This is quite a large difference ; but 
when we consider the altitude of the place, the sudden 
changes of temperature, and the atmospheric conditions, 
it is not more than one might expect. 

" While at Juneau I heard reports of a low pass from the 
head of Chilkoot Inlet to the head waters of Lewes Eiver. 
During the time I was at the head of Taiya Inlet I made 
inquiries regarding it, and found that there was such a 
pass, but could learn nothing definite about it from either 
whites or Indians. As Capt. Moore, who accompanied 
me, was very anxious to go through it, and as the reports 
of the Taiya Pass indicated that no wagon road or railroad 
could ever be built through it, while the new pass appeared, 
from what little knowledge I could get of it, to be much 
lower and possibly feasible for a wagon road, I determined 
to send the captain by that way, if I could get an Indian 
to accompany him. This, I found, would be difficult to 
do. None of the Chilkoots appeared to know anything of 
the pass, and I concluded that they wished to keep its 
existence and condition a secret. The Tagish, or Stick 
Indians, as the interior Indians are locally called, are afraid 
to do anything in opposition to the wishes of the Chilkoots ; 
so it Avas difficult to get any of them to join Capt. Moore ; 
but after much talk and encouragement from the whites 
around, one of them named '^Jim" was induced to go. 
He had been through this pass before, and proved reliable 
and useful. The information obtained from Capt. Moore's 
exploration I have incorporated in my plan of the survey 
from Taiya Inlet, but it is not as complete as I would 
have liked. I have named this pass '' White Pass," in 
honor of the late Hon. Thos. White, Minister of the 
Interior, under whose authority the expedition was organ- 
ized. Commencing at Taiya Inlet, about two miles south 
of its north end, it follows up the vaUey of the Shkagway 
River to its source, and thence down the valley of another 



EL ON DYKE FACTS. 41 

river which Capt. Moore reported to empty into the Takone 
or Windy Arm of Bove Lake (Schwatka). Dr. Dawson 
says this stream empties into Taku Arm, and in that 
event Capt. Moore is mistaken. Capt. Moore did not go 
all the way through to the lake, but assumed from reports 
he heard from the miners and others that the stream flowed 
into Windy Arm, and this also was the idea of the Indian 
**Jim" from what I could gather from his remarks in 
broken English and Chinook. Capt. Moore estimates the 
distance from tide water to the summit at about 18 miles, 
and from the summit to the lake at about 22 to 23 miles. 
He reports the pass as thickly timbered all the way through. 

'^ The timber line on the south side of the Taiya Pass, as 
determined by barometer reading, is about 2,300 feet 
above the sea, while on the north side it is about 1,000 feet 
below the summit. This large difference is due, I think, 
to the different conditions in the two places. On the 
south side the valley is narrow and deep, and the sun can- 
not produce its full effect. The snow also is much deeper 
there, owing to the quantity which drifts in from the sur- 
rounding mountains. On the north side the surface is 
sloping, and more exposed to the sun's rays. On the south 
side the timber is of the class peculiar to the coast, and 
on the north that peculiar to the interior. The latter 
would grow at a greater altitude than the coast timber. 
It is possible that the summit of White Pass is not higher 
than the timber line on the north of the Taiya Pass, 
or about 2,500 feet above tide water, and it is possibly 
even lower than this, as the timber in a valley such as the 
White Pass would hardly live at the same altitude as on 
the open slope on the north side. 

'^ Capt. Moore has had considerable experience in building 
roads in mountainous countries. He considers that this 
would be an easy route for a wagon road compared with 
8ome roads he has seen in British Columbia. Assuming 



42 KLONBYKE FACTS. 

his distances to be correct, and the height of the pass to be 
probably about correctly indicated, the grades would not 
be very steep, and a railroad could easily be carried through 
if necessary. 

*' After completing the survey down to the lake, I set 
about getting my baggage down too. Of all the Indians 
who came to the summit with packs, only four or five could 
be induced to remain and pack down to the lake, although 
I was paying them at the rate of $4 per hundred pounds. 
After one trip down only two men remained, and they only 
in hopes of stealing something. One of them appropriated 
a pair of boots, and was much surprised to find that he 
had to pay for them on being settled with. I could not 
blame them much for not caring to work, as the weather 
was very disagreeable — it rained or snowed almost continu- 
ously. After the Indians left I tried to get down the stuff 
with the aid of my own men, but it was slavish and un- 
healthy labor, and after the first trip one of them was 
laid up with what appeared to be inflammatory rheumatism. 
The first time the party crossed, the sun was sliining 
brightly, and this brought on snow blindness, the pain of 
which only those who have suffered from this complaint 
can realize. I had two sleds with me which were made in 
Juneau specially for the work of getting over the mount- 
ains and down the lakes on the ice. With these I suc- 
ceeded in bringing about a ton and a-half to the lakes, but 
found that the time it would take to get all down in this 
way would seriously interfere with the programme arranged 
with Dr. Dawson, to say nothing of the suffering of the 
men and myself, and the liability to sickness which pro- 
tracted physical exertion under such uncomfortable con- 
ditions and continued suffering from snow blindness ex- 
pose us to. I had with me a white man who lived at tlie 
head of the inlet with a Tagish Indian woman. This man 
had a good deal of influence with the Tagish tribe, of 



ELONDYEE FACTS. 43 

whom the greater number were then in the neighborhood 
where he resided, trying to get some odd jobs of work, 
and I sent liim to the head of the inlet to try and induce 
the Tagish Indians to undertake the transportation, offer- 
ing them $5 per hundred pounds. In the meantime Capt. 
Moore and the Indian ^^Jim" had rejoined me. I had 
their assistance for a day or two, and ^^Jim^s^^ presence 
aided indirectly in inducing the Indians to come to my 
relief. 

'' The Tagish are little more than slaves to the more power- 
ful coast tribes, and are in constant dread of offending 
them in any way. One of the privileges which the coast 
tribes claim is the exclusive right to all work on the coast 
or in its vicinity, and the Tagish are afraid to dispute this 
claim. When my white man asked the Tagish to come 
over and pack they objected on the grounds mentioned. 
After considerable ridicule of their cowardice, and explana- 
tion of the fact that they had the exclusive right to all 
work in their own country, the country on the side of the 
north side of the coast range being admitted by the coast 
Indians to belong to the Tagish tribe just as the coast 
tribes had the privilege of doing all the work on the 
coast side of the mountains, and that one of their num- 
ber was already working with me unmolested, and likely 
to continue so, nine of them came over, and in fear 
and trembling began to pack down to the lake. After 
they were at work for a few days some of the Chilkoots 
came out and also started to work. Soon I had quite a 
number at work and was getting my stuff down quite fast. 
But this good fortune was not to continue. Owing to the 
prevailing wet, cold weather on the mountains, and the 
difficulty of getting through the soft wet snow, the Indians 
soon began to quit work for a day or two at a time, and to 
gamble with one another for the wages already earned. 
Many of them wanted to be paid in full, but this I posi- 



44 KLONBYKE FACTS. 

tively refused, knowing that to do so was to have them all 
apply for their earnings and leave me until necessity com- 
pelled them to go to work again. I once for all made them 
distinctly understand that I would not pay any of them 
until the whole of the stuff w^as down. As many of them 
had already earned from twelve to fifteen dollars each, to 
lose which was a serious matter to them, they reluctantly 
resumed work and kej^t at it until ail was delivered. This 
done, I paid them off, and set about getting my outfit across 
the lake, which I did with my own party and the two 
Peterborough canoes which I had with me. 

'• These two canoes travelled about 3,000 miles by rail and 
about 1,000 miles by steamship before being brought into 
service. They did considerable Avork on Chilkoot and 
Tagisli Inlets, and were then packed over to the head of 
Lewes River (Lake Lindeman), from where they were used 
in making the survey of Lewes and Yukon Rivers. Li this 
work they made about G50 landings. They were then 
transported on sleighs from the boundary on the Yukon to 
navigable water on the Porcu^^ine. 

''In the spring of 1888 they descended the latter river, 
heavily loaded, and through much rough water, to the 
mouth of BelFs River, and up it to McDougall's Pass. 
They were then carried over the pass to Poplar River and 
were used in going down the latter to Peel River, and thence 
up Mackenzie River 1,400 miles ; or, exclusive of railway 
and ship carriage, they were carried about 170 miles and 
did about 2,500 miles of work for the expedition, making 
in all about 1,700 landings in no easy manner and going 
through some very bad water. I left them at Fort Chipe- 
wyan in fairly good condition, and, wdth a little paint- 
ing, they would go through the same ordeal again. 

After getting all my outfit over to the foot of Lake Linde- 
man I set some of the party to pack it to the head of Ijake 
Bennet. 



KLOXDYKF FACTS. 45 

'^ I employed the rest of the party in looking for timber 
to build a boat to carry my outfit of provisions and imple- 
ments down the river to the vicinity of the international 
boundary, a distance of about 700 miles. It took several 
days to find a tree large enough to make plank for the 
boat 1 wanted, as the timber around the upper end of the 
lake is small and scrubby. My boat was finished on the 
evening of the 11th of July, and on the 12th I started a 
portion of the party to load it and go ahead with it and 
the outfit to the canon. They had instructions to examine 
the canon and, if necessary, to carry a part of the outfit 
past it — in any case, enough to support the party back to 
the coast should accident necessitate such procedure. AVith 
the rest of the party I started to carry on the survey, which 
may now be said to have fairly started ahead on the lakes. 
This joroved tedious work, on account of the stormy 
weather. 

*' In the summer months there is nearly always a wind 
blowing in from the coast ; it blows down the lakes and 
produces quite a heavy swell. This would not prevent the 
canoes going with the decks on, but, as we had to land every 
mile or so, the rollers breaking on the generally flat beach 
proved very troublesome. On this account I found I 
could not average more than ten miles per day on the 
lakes, little more than half of what could be done on the 
river. 

^' The survey was completed to the canon on the 20th of 
July. There I found the party with the large boat had 
arrived on the 18th, having carried a part of the sujDplies 
past the canon, and were awaiting my arrival to run through 
it with the rest in the boat. Before doing so, however, I 
made an examination of the cafion. The rapids below it, 
particularly the last rapid of the series (called the White 
Horse by the miners), I found would not be safe to run. 
I sent two men through the canon in one of the canoes to 



46 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

await tlio arrival of the boat, and to be ready in case of an 
accident to pick us ujd. Every man in the party was sup- 
plied with a life-preserver, so that should a casualty occur 
we would all have floated. Those in the canoe got through 
all right ; but they would not have liked to repeat the 
trip. They said the canoe jumped about a great deal more 
than they thought it would, and I had the same experience 
when going through in the boat. 

^' The passage through is made in about three minutes, or 
at the rate of about 12J miles an hour. If the boat is kept 
clear of the sides there is not much danger in high water ; 
but in low water there is a rock in the middle of the channel, 
near the upper end of the canon, that renders the passage 
more difficult. I did not see this rock myself, but got my 
information from some miners I met in the interior, who 
described it as being about 150 yards down from the head 
and a little to the west of the middle of the channel. In 
low water it barely projects above the surface. When I 
passed through there was no indication of it, either from 
the bank above or from the boat. 

^'^The distance from the head to the foot of the caiion is 
five-eighths of a mile. There is a basin about midway in it 
about 150 yards in diameter. This basin is circular in 
form, with steep sloping sides about 100 feet high. The 
lower joart of the cafion is much rougher to run through 
than the upper part, the fall being apparently much 
greater. The sides are generally perpendicular, about 80 
to 100 feet high, and consist of basalt, in some places 
showing hexagonal columns. 

^' The White Horse Rapids are about three-eighths of a 
mile long. Tliey are the most dangerous rapids on the 
river, and are never run through in boats except by ac- 
cident. They are confined by low basaltic banks, which, 
at the foot, suddenly close in and make the channel about 
30 yards wide. It is here the danger lies, as there is a 



KLONDYKE FACTS. 47 

sudden drop and the water riislies through at a tremen- 
dous rate^, leaping and seething like a cataract. The 
miners have constructed a portage road on the west side, 
and put down rollways in some places on which to shove 
their boats over. They have also made some windlasses 
with which to haul their boats up liill, notaljly one at the 
foot of the canon. This roadway and windlasses must have 
cost them many hours of hard labor. Should it ever be 
necessary, a tramway could be built 2">ast the caiion on the 
east side with no great difficulty. With the exception 
of the Five Finger Rapids these appear to be the only 
serious rapids on the whole length of the river. 

'• Five Finger Rapids are formed by several islands stand- 
ing in the channel and backing up the water so much as 
to raise it about a foot, causing a swell below for a few 
yards. The islands are composed of conglomerate rock, 
similar to the cliffs on each side of the river, whence one 
would infer that there has been a fall here in past ages. 
For about two miles below the rapids there is a pretty swift 
current, but not enough to prevent the ascent of a steam- 
boat of moderate power, and the rapids themselves I do 
not think would present any serious obstacle to the ascent 
of a good boat. In very high water warping might be re- 
quired. Six miles below these rapids are what are known 
as ^ Rink Rapids.' This is simply a barrier of rocks, which 
extends from the westerly side of the river about half way 
across. Over this barrier there is a ripple which would 
offer no great obstacle to the descent of a good canoe. On 
the easterly sides there is no ripple, and the current is 
smooth and the water apparently deep. I tried with a 6 
foot paddle, but could not reach the bottom. 

'^ On the 11th of August I met a party of miners coming 
out who had passed Stewart River a few days before. 
They saw no sign of Dr. Dawson having been there. This 
was welcome news for me, as I expected he would have 



48 KLONBYKE FACTf^. 

reached that point long before I arrived, on account of the 
many delays I had met with on the coast range. These 
miners also gave me the pleasant news that the story told 
at the coast about the fight with the Indians at Stewart 
River was false, and stated substantially what I have 
already repeated concerning it. The same evening I met 
more miners on their way out, and the next day met three 
boats, each containing four men. In the crew of one of them 
was a son of Capt. Moore, from whom the captain got such 
information as induced him to turn back and accompany 
them out. 

'^ Next day, the 13th, I got to the mouth of the Pelly, and 
found that Dr. Dawson had arrived there on the 11th. 
The doctor also had experienced many delays, and had 
heard the same story of the Indian uprising in the interior. 
I was pleased to find that he was in no immediate want of 
provisions, the fear of which had caused me a great deal of 
uneasiness on the way down the river, as it was arranged 
between us in Victoria that I was to take with me provi- 
sions for his party to do them until their return to the 
coast. The doctor was so much behind the time arranged 
to meet me that he determined to start for the coast at 
once. I therefore set about making a short report and 
plan of my survey to this point ; and, as I was not likely 
to get another opportunity of writing at such length for a 
year, I applied myself to a correspondence designed to 
satisfy my friends and acquaintances for the ensuing 
twelve months. This necessitated three days' hard work. 

^' On the morning of the 17th the doctor left for the out- 
side world, leaving me with a feeling of loneliness that only 
those who have experienced it can realize. I remained 
at the mouth of the Pelly during the next day taking mag- 
netic and astronomical observations, and making some 
measurements of the river. On the 19th I resumed the 
survey and reached White River on the 25th. Here I spent 



KLONDYKE FACTS. 49 

most of a (lay trying to ascend this river, but found it im- 
practicable, on account of the swift current and shallow 
and very muddy water. The water is so muddy that it is 
impossible to see through one-eighth of an inch of it. 
The current is very strong, probably eight miles or more 
per hour, and tlie numerous bars in the bed are constantly 
changing place. After trying for several hours, the base 
men succeeded in doing about half a mile only, and I came 
to the conclusion that it was useless to try to get up this 
stream to the boundary with canoes. Had it proved 
feasible I had intended making a survey of this stream to 
the boundary, to discover more esjoecially the facilities it 
offered for the transport of supplies in the event of a 
survey of the International Boundary being undertaken. 

'' I reached Stewart River on the 26th. Here I remained 
a day taking magnetic observations, and getting informa- 
tion from a miner, named McDonald, about the countrv 
up that river. McDonald had spent the summer up the 
river prospecting and exploring. His information will be 
given in detail further on. 

'' Fort Reliance was reached on the 1st of September, and 
Forty Mile River (Cone-Hill River of Schwatka) on the 
7th. In the interval between Fort Reliance and Forty 
Mile River there were several days lost by rain. 

'^ At Forty Mile River I made some arrangements with 
the traders there (Messrs. Harper & McQuestion) about 
supplies during the winter, and about getting Indians to 
assist me in crossing from the Yukon to the head of the 
Porcupine, or perhaps on to the Peel River. I then nuide 
a survey of the Forty Mile River up to the canon. I 
found the canon would bedifheult of ascent, and dangerous 
to descend, and therefore, concluded to defer further 
operations until the winter, and until after I had deter- 
mined the longitude of my winter post near the boundary, 
when I would be in a much better position to locate the 
4 



60 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

intersection of the International Boundary with this river, 
a point important to determine on account of the number 
and richness of the mining claims on the river. 

'' I left Forty Mile River for the boundary line between 
Alaska and the Northwest Territories on the 12th Sep- 
tember, and finished the survey to that point on the 14th. 
I then spent two days in examining the valley of the river 
in the vicinity of the boundary to get the most extensive 
view of the horizon possible, and to find a tree large enough 
to serve for a transit stand. 

^' Before leaving Toronto I got Mr. Foster to make large 
brass plates with V's on them, which could be screwed 
firmly to a stump, and thus be made to serve as a transit 
stand. I required a stump at least 22 inches in diameter 
to make a base large enough for the plates when properly 
placed for the transit. In a searcli which covered about 
four miles of the river bank, on both sides, I found only 
one tree as large as 18 inches. I mention this fact to give 
an idea of the size of the trees along the river in this 
vicinity. I had this stump enlarged by firmly fixing pieces 
on the sides so as to bring it up to the requisite size. This 
done, I built around the stump a small transit house of 
the ordinary form and then mounted and adjusted my 
transit. Meanwhile, most of the party were busy prepar- 
ing our winter quarters and building a magnetic observa- 
tory. As I had been led to expect extremely low temper- 
atures during the winter, I adopted precautionary measures, 
so as to be as comfortable as circumstances would permit 
during our stay there. 

DESCRIPTION" OF THE YUKON, ITS AFFLUENT STREAMS, 
AND THE ADJACENT COUNTRY. 

^' I will now give, from my own observation and from 
information received, a more detailed description of the 



KLONDYKE FACTS. 51 

Lewes River^ its affluent streams, and the resources of the 
adjacent country. 

'^For the purpose of navigation a description of the 
Lewes Eiver begnis at the head of Lake Bennet. Above 
that point, and between it and Lake Lindeman, there is 
only about three-quarters of a mile of river, which is not 
more than fifty or sixty yards wide, and two or three feet 
deep, and is so swift and rough that navigation is out of 
the question. 

" Lake Lindeman is about five miles long and half a mile 
wide. It is deep enough for all ordinary purposes. Lake 
Bennet * is twenty-six and a quarter miles long, for the 
upper fourteen of which it is about half a mile wide. 
About midway in its length an arm comes in from the 
west, which Schwatka appears to have mistaken for a 
river, and named Wheaton Kiver. This arm is wider than 
the other arm down to that point, and is reported by 
Indians to be longer and heading in a glacier which lies in 
the pass at the head of Chilkoot Inlet. This arm is, as 
far as seen, surrounded by high mountains, apparently 
much higher than those on the arm we travelled down. 
Below the junction of the two arms the lake is about one 
and a half miles wide, with deep water. Above the forks 
the water of the east branch is muddy. This is caused by 
the streams from the numerous glaciers on the head of 
the tributaries of Lake Lindeman. 

'' A stream which flows into Lake Bennet at the south- 
west corner is also very dirty, and has shoaled quite a large 
portion of the lake at its mouth. The beach at the lower 
end of this lake is comparatively flat and the water shoal. 

* A small saw-mill has been erected at the head of Lake Ben- 
net ; Imnber for boat building sells at $100 per M. Boats 25 feet 
long and 5 feet beam are $60 each. Last year tlie ice broke up 
in the lake on the 12th June, but this season is earlier and the 
boats are expected to go down the lake about the 1st of June. 



62 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

A deep, wide valley extends northwards from the north 
end of the lake, apparently reaching to the canon, or a 
short distance above it. This may have been originally a 
course for the waters of the river. The bottom of the 
valley is wide and sandy, and covered with scrubby timber, 
principally poplar and pitch-pine. The waters of the lake 
empty at the extreme north-east angle through a channel 
not more than one hundred yards wide, which soon expands 
into what Schwatka called Lake Nares.* Through this 
narrow channel there is quite a current, and more than 7 
feet of water, as a G foot paddle and a foot of arm added 
to its length did not reach the bottom. 

"The hills at the upper end of Lake Lindeman rise 
abruptly from the water's edge. At the lower end they are 
neither so steep nor so high. 

''Lake Nares is only two and a half miles long, and its 
greatest width is about a mile ; it is not deep, but is navi- 
gable for boats drawing 5 or G feet of water ; it is separated 
from Lake Bennet by a shallow sandy point of not more 
than 200 yards in length. 

''No streams of any consequence empty into either of 
these lakes. A small river flows into Lake Bennet on the 
west side, a short distance north of the fork, and another 
at the extreme north-west angle, but neither of them is of 
any consequence in a navigable sense. 

" LakeNares flows through a narrow curved channel into 
Bove Lake (Schwatka). This channel is not more than 
600 or 700 yards long, and the water in it appears to be suf- 
ficiently deep for boats that could navigate the lake. The 
land between the lakes along this channel is low, swampy, 
and covered with willows, and, at the stage in which I saw 
it, did not rise more than 3 feet above the water. The 
hills on the southwest side slope up easily, and are not 

*The connecting waters between Lake Bennet and Tagish 
Lake constitute what is now called Caribou Crossing. 



KLONDYKE FACTS. 53 

high ; oil the north side the deep valley already referred to 
borders it ; and on the east side the mountains rise abruptly 
from the lake shore. 

" Bove Lake (called Tagish Lake by Dr. Dawson) is 
about a mile wide for the first two miles of its length, when 
it is joined by what the miners have called the Windy Arm. 
One of the Tagish Indians informed me they called it 
Takone Lake. Here the lake expands to a width of about 
two miles for a distance of some three miles, when it sud- 
denly narrows to about half a mile for i\ distance of a little 
over a mile, after which it widens again to about a mile 
and a half or more. 

'' Ten miles from the head of the lake it is joined by the 
Taku Arm from the south. This arm must be of consider- 
able length, as it can be seen for a long distance, and its 
valley can be traced through the mountains much farther 
than the lake itself can be seen. It is apparently over a 
mile wide at its mouth or junction. 

" Dr. Dawson includes Bove Lake and these two arms 
under the common name of Tagish Lake. This is much 
more simple and comprehensive than the various names 
given them by travellers. These waters collectively are 
the fishing and hunting grounds of the Tagish Indians, and 
as they are really one body of water, there is no reason why 
they should not be all included under one name. 

" From the junction with the Taku Arm to the north end 
of the lake the distance is about six miles, the greater part 
being over two miles wide. The west side is very flat and 
shallow, so much so that it was impossible in many places 
to get our canoes to the shore, and quite a distance out in 
the lake there was not more than 5 feet of water. The 
members of my party who were in charge of the large boat 
and outfit, went down the east side of the lake and reported 
the depth about the same as I found on the west side, with 
many large rocks. They passed through it in the night in 



54 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

a rainstorm, and were much alarmed for the safety of the 
boat and provisions. It would appear that this part of the 
lake requires some improvement to make it in keej^ing 
with the rest of the water system with which it is con- 
nected. 

'^'^ Where the river debouches from it, it is about 150 
yards wide, and for a short distance not more than 5 or 6 
feet deep. The depth is, however, soon increased to 10 
feet or more, and so contiuues down to what Schwatka 
calls Marsh Lake. The miners call it Mud Lake, but on 
this name they do not appear to be agreed, many of them 
calling the lower part of Tagish or Bove Lake '^ Mud 
Lake," on account of its shallowness and flat muddy shores, 
as seen along the west side, the side nearly always travelled, 
as it is more sheltered from the prevailing southerly winds. 
The term ^^Mud Lake" is, however, not applicable to this 
lake, as only a comparatively small part of it is shallow or 
muddy ; and it is nearly as inapplicable to Marsh Lake, as 
the latter is not markedly muddy along the west side, and 
from the appearance of the east shore one would not judge 
it to be so, as the banks appear to be high and gravelly. 

'' Marsh Lake is a little over nineteen miles long, and 
averages about two miles in width. I tried to determine 
the width of it as I went along with my survey, by taking 
azimuths of points on the eastern sl^ore from different 
stations of the survey ; but in only one case did I succeed, 
as there were no prominent marks on that shore which 
could be identified from more than one place. The piece 
of river connecting Tagish and Marsh Lakes is about five 
miles long, and averages 150 to 200 yards in width, and, as 
already mentioned, is deep, except for a short distance at the 
head. On it are situated the only Indian houses to be found 
in the interior with any pretension to skill in construction. 
They show much more labor and imitativeness than one 
knowing anything about the Indian in his native state 



KLONDYKE FACTS, 55 

would expect. The plan is evidently taken from the Indian 
houses on the coast, which appear to me to be a j)oor copy 
of the houses which the Hudson's Bay Company's servants 
build around their trading posts. These houses do not 
appear to have been used for some time past, and are almost 
in ruins. The Tagish Indians are now generally on the 
coast, as they find it much easier to live there than in their 
own country. As a matter of fact, what they make 
in their own country is taken from them by the Coast 
Indians, so that there is little inducement for them to 
remain. 

*^ The Lewes River, where it leaves Marsh Lake, is about 
200 yards wide, and averages this width as far as the canon. 
I did not try to find bottom anywhere as I went along, ex- 
cept where I had reason to think it shallow, and there I 
always tried with my paddle. I did not anywhere find 
bottom with this, which shows that there is no part of this 
stretch of the river with less than six feet of water at 
medium height, at which stage it appeared to me the river 
was at that time. 

^"^From the head of Lake Bennet to the caflon the cor- 
rected distance is ninety-five miles, all of which is navigable 
for boats drawing 5 feet or more. Add to this the westerly 
arm of Lake Bennet, and the Takone or Windy Arm of 
Tagish Lake, each about fifteen miles in length, and the 
Taku Arm of the latter lake, of unknown length, but prob- 
ably not less than thirty miles, and we have a stretch of 
water of upwards of one hundred miles in length, all easily 
navigable ; and, as has been pointed out, easily connected 
with Taiya Inlet through the White Pass. 

^^ No streams of any importance enter any of these lakes 
so far as I know. A river, called by Schwatka '' McClin- 
tock River," enters Marsh Lake at the lower end from the 
east. It occupies a large valley, as seen from the westerly 
side of the lake, but the stream is apparently unimportant. 



56 KL ON DYKE FACTS. 

Another small stream, apparently only a creek, enters the 
south-east angle of the lake. It is not probable that any 
stream coming from the east side of the lake is of import- 
ance, as the strip of country between the Lewes and Teslin- 
too is not more than than thirty or forty miles in width at 
this point. 

'' The Taku Arm of Tagish Lake, is, so far, with the ex- 
ception of reports from Indians, unknown ; but it is equally 
improbable that any river of importance enters it, as it is 
so near the source of the waters flowing northwards. How- 
ever, this is a question that can only be decided by a proper 
exploration. The cailon I have already described and will 
only add that it is five-eighths of a mile long, about 100 feet 
wide, with perpendicular banks of basaltic rock from 60 to 
100 feet high. 

" Below the caiion proper there is a stretch of rapids for 
about a mile ; then al)out half a mile of smooth water, fol- 
lowing wliich are the White Horse Ivapids, which are three- 
eighths of a mile long, and unsafe for boats. 

'' The total fall in the canon and succeeding rapids was 
measured and found to be 32 feet, ^yere it ever necessary 
to make this part of the river navigable it will be no easy 
task to overcome the obstacles at this point ; but a tram or 
railway could, with very little difficulty, be constructed 
along the east side of the river past the canon. 

^"'For some distance below the While Horse Eaj^ids the 
current is swift and tlie river wide, with many gravel bars. 
The reach between these rapids and Lake Labarge, a dis- 
tance of twenty-seven and a half miles, is all smooth water, 
with a strong current. The average width is about 150 
yards. There is no impediment to navigation other than 
the swift current, and this is no stronger tlian on the lower 
part of the river, which is already navigated ; nor is it 
worse than on the Saskatchewan and Red Rivers in the 
jnore eastern part of our territory. 



KLON DYKE FACTS. 57 

"About midwa}^ in this stretch the Tahkeena River * 
joins the Lewes. This river is, apparently, about half the 
size of the latter. Its waters are nuuldy, indicating the 
passage through a clayey district. I got some indefinite 
information about this river, from an Indian who happened 
to meet me just below its mouth, but I could not readily 
make him understand me, and his replies were a compound 
of Chinook, Tagish, and signs, and therefore largely unin- 
telligible. From what I could understand with any cer- 
tainty, the river was easy to descend, there being no bad 
rapids, and it came out of a lake much larger than any I 
had yet passed. 

"Here I may remark that .1 have invariably found it 
difficult to get reliable or definite information from Indians. 
The reasons for this are many. Most of the Indians it has 
been my lot to meet are expecting to make something, and 
consequently are very chary about doing or saying anything 
unless they think they will be well rewarded for it. They 
are naturally very suspicious of strangers, and it takes some 
time, and some knowledge of their language, to overcome 
this suspicion and gain their confidence. If you begin at 
once to ask questions about their country, without pre- 
viously having them understand that you luiveno unfriend- 
ly motive in doing so, they become alarmed, and although 
you may not meet with a positive refusal to answer ques- 
tions, you make very little progress in getting desired in- 
formation. On the otlier hand I have met cases where, 
either through fear or hope of reward, they were only too 
anxious to impart all they knew or had heard, and even 
more if they thought it would please their hearer. I need 
hardly say that such information is often not at all in ac- 
cordance with the facts. 

*The Tahkeena was formerly much used by tlie Cliilkat Indians 
as a means of reacliing the interior, hut never by the miners 
owing to the distance from the sea to its head. 



58 KLONBYKE FACTS. 

" I have several times found that some act of mine when 
in their presence has aroused either their fear, superstition 
or cupidity. As an instance : on the Bell Eiver I met some 
Indians coming down stream as I was going up. We were 
ashore at the time, and invited them to join us. They 
started to come in, but very slowly, and all the time kept 
a watchful eye on us. I noticed that my double-barrelled 
shot gun was lying at my feet, loaded, and picked it up to 
unload it, as I knew they would be handling it after land- 
ing. This alarmed them so much that it was some time 
before they came in, and I don^t think they would have 
come ashore at all had they not heard that a party of 
white men of whom we answered the description, were com- 
ing through that way (they had learned this from the 
Hudson^s Bay Company^s officers), and concluded we were 
the party described to them. After drinking some of our 
tea, and getting a supply for themselves, they became quite 
friendly and communicative. 

" I cite these as instances of what one meets with who 
comes in contact with Indians, and of how trifles affect 
them. A sojourn of two or three days with them and the 
assistance of a common friend would do much to disabuse 
til em of such ideas, but when you have no such aids you 
must not expect to make much 2:)r ogress. 

^' Lake Labarge is thirty-one miles long. In the upper 
tliirteen it varies from three to four miles in width ; it then 
narrows to about two miles for a distance of seven miles, 
when it begins to widen again, and gradually expands to 
about two and a-half or three miles, the lower six miles of 
it maintaining the latter width. The survey was carried 
along the western shore, and while so engaged I deter- 
mined the width of the upper wide part by triangulation 
at two points, the width of the narrow middlepart at three 
points, and the width of the lower part at three points. 
Dr. Dawson on his way out made a track survey of the 



KLONDYKE FACTS. 59 

eastern shore. The western shore is irregular in many 
places, being indented by large bays, especially at the upper 
and lower ends. These bays are, as a rule, shallow, more 
especially those at the lower end. 

'^ Just above where the lake narrows in the middle there 
is a large island. It is three and a-half miles long and 
about half a mile in width. It is shown on Schwatka's 
map as a peninsula, and called by him Richtofen Rocks. 
How he came to think it a peninsula I cannot understand, 
as it is well out in the lake ; the nearest point of it to the 
western shore is upwards of half a mile distant, and the 
extreme width of the lake here is not more than five miles, 
which includes the depth of the deepest bays on the western 
side. It is therefore difficult to understand that he did not 
see it as an island. The upper half of this island is gravelly, 
and does not rise very high above the lake. The lower end 
is rocky and high, the rock being of a bright red color. 

^^ At the lower end of the lake there is a large valley ex- 
tending northwards, which has evidently at one time been 
the outlet of the lake. Dr. Dawson has noted it and its 
peculiarities. His remarks regarding it will be found on 
pages 156-160 of his report entitled ' Yukon District and 
Northern portion of British Columbia,' published in 1889. 

'^ The width of the Lewes River as it leaves the lake is the 
same as at its entrance, about 200 yards. Its waters when 
I was there were murky. This is caused by the action of 
the waves on the shore along the lower end of the lake. 
The water at the upper end and at the middle of the lake 
is quite clear, so much so that the bottom can be distinctly 
seen at a depth of 6 or 7 feet. The wind blows almost 
constantly down this lake, and in a high wind it gets very 
rough. The miners complain of much detention owing to 
this cause, and certainly I cannot complain of a lack of 
wind wliile I was on the lake. This lake was named after 
one Mike Labarge, who was engaged by the Western Union 



(30 kLondyke PAcT^. 

Telegraph Company, exploring the river and adjacent 
country for the purpose of connecting Europe and America 
by telegraph through British Columbia, and Alaska, and 
across Behring Strait to Asia, and thence to Europe. This 
exploration took place in 1867, but it does not appear that 
Labarge then, nor for some years after, saw the lake called 
by his name. The successful laying of the Atlantic cable 
in 18GG put a stop to this project, and the exploring parties 
sent out were recalled as soon as word could be got to tliem. 
It seems that Labarge had got up as far as the Pelly before 
he received his recall ; he had heard something of a large 
lake some distance further up the river, and afterwards 
spoke of it to some traders and miners Avho called it after 
him. 

''^ After leaving Lake Labarge the river, for a distance 
of about five miles, preserves a generally uniform width 
and an easy current of about four miles per hour. It then 
makes a short turn round a low gravel point, and flows in 
exactly the opposite of its general course for a mile when it 
again turns sharply to its general direction. The current 
around this curve and for some distance below it — in all 
four or five miles — is very swift. I timed it in several 
places and found it from six to seven miles an hour. It 
then moderates to four or five, and continues so until the 
Teslintoo River is reached, thirty-one and seven tenths 
miles from Lake Labarge. The average width of this part 
of the river is about 150 yards, and the depth is sufficient 
to afford passage for boats drawing at least 5 feet. It is, as 
a rule, crooked, and consequently a little difficult to navi- 
gate. 

^^The Teslintoo* was so called by Dr. Dawson — this, ac- 

*The limited amount of prospecting that has been done on this 
river is said to he very satisfactorj', fine gold liaving l)een found 
in all parts of the triver. The lack of sujtplies is the great draw- 
back to its development, and this will not be overcome to any ex- 



K LOS DYKE FACTS. 61 

cording to information obtained by him, being the Indian 
name. It is called by the miners ' Hootalinkwa ' or 
Hotalinqua, and was called by Schwatka, who appears to 
have bestowed no other attention to it, the Newberry, al- 
thongh it is apparently mnch larger than the Lewes. I'his 
was so apparent that in my interim reports I stated it as a 
fact. Owing to circnmstances already narrated, I had ]iot 
time while at the mouth to make any measurement to de- 
termine the relative size of the rivers ; but on his way out 
Dr. Dawson made these measurements, and his report, be- 
fore referred to, gives the following values of the cross sec- 
tions of each stream : Lewes, 3,015 feet ; Teslintoo, 3,809 
feet. In the same connection, he states that the Lewes ap- 
peared to be about 1 foot above its lowest summer level, 
while the Teslintoo appeared to be at its lowest level. 
Assuming this to be so, and taking his widths as our data, 
it would reduce his cross section of the Lewes to 2,595 feet. 
Owing, however, to the current in the Lewes, as determined 
by Dr. Dawson, being just double that of the Teslintoo, 
the figures being 5*68 and 2*88 miles per hour, respectively, 
the discharge of the Lewes, taking these figures again in 
18,644 feet, and of the Teslintoo 11,436 feet. To reduce 
the Lewes to its lowest level the doctor says would make 
its discharge 15,600 feet. 

'' The water of the Teslintoo is of a dark brown color, 
similar in appearance to the Ottawa Eiver water, and a little 
turbid. Notwithstanding the difference of volnme of dis- 
tent until by some means heavy freight can be brought over the 
coast range to the head of the river. Indeed, owing to the diffi- 
culties attending access and transportation, the great drawback to 
the entire Yukon district at present is the want of heavy mining 
machinery and the scarcity of supplies. The government being 
aware of the requirements and possibilities of tlie country, has 
undertaken the task of making preliminary surveys for trails and 
railroads, and no doubt in the near future the avenue for better 
and quicker transportation facilities will be opened up. 



62 KLONBYKE FACTS. 

charge^ the Teslintoo changes completely the character of 
the river below the junction, and a person coming up the 
river would, at the forks, unliesitatingly pronounce the 
Teslintoo the main stream. The water of the Lewes is 
blue in color, and at the time I speak of was somewhat 
dirty — not enough so, however, to prevent one seeing to a 
depth of two or three feet. 

^' At the junction of the Lewes and Teslintoo I met two 
or three families of the Indians who hunt in the vicinity. 
One of them could speak a little Chinook. As I had two 
men with me who understood his jargon perfectly, with their 
assistance I tried to get some information from him about 
the river. He told me the river was easy to ascend, and 
presented the same appearance eight days journey up as at 
the mouth ; then a lake was reached, which took one day 
to cross ; the river was then followed again for half a day 
to another lake, which took two days to traverse : into this 
lake emptied a stream which they used as a highway to the 
coast, passing by way of the Taku lliver. He said it took 
four days when they had loads to carry, from the head of 
canoe navigation on the Teslintoo to salt water on the Taku 
Inlet ; but when they come light they take only one to two 
days. He spoke also of a stream entering the large lake 
from the cast which came from a distance ; but they did 
not seem to know much about it, and considered it outside 
their country. If their time intervals are approximately 
accurate, they mean that there are about 200 miles of good 
river to the first lake, as they ought easily to make 25 miles 
a day on the river as I saw it. The lake takes one day to 
traverse, and is at least 25 miles long, followed by say 12 
of river, which brings us to the large lake, which takes two 
days to cross, say 50 or GO more — in all about 292 miles — 
say 300 to the head of canoe navigation ; while the distance 
from the head of Lake Bennet to the junction is only 188, 
Assuming the course of the Teslintoo to be nearly south 



KLONBYKE FACTS, 63 

(it is a little to the east of it) , and throwing out every 
fourth mile for bends, the remainder gives us in arc three 
degrees and a quarter of latitude, which, deducted from 
61° 40', the latitude of the Junction, gives us 58° 25', or 
nearly the latitude of Juneau. 

'^ To make sure that I understood the Indian aright, and 
that he knew what he was speaking about, I got him to 
sketch the river and lake, as he described them, on the 
sand, and repeat the same several times. 

'^ I afterwards met Mr. T. Bos well, his brother, and an- 
other miner, who had spent most of the summer on the 
river prospecting, and from them I gathered the following : 

'^ The distance to the first, and only lake which they saw, 
they put at 175 miles, and the lake itself they call at 
least 150 miles long, as it took them four days to row in a 
light boat from end to end. The portage to the sea they 
did not aj^jpear to know anything about, but describe a 
large bay on the east side of the lake, into which a river of 
considerable size entered. This river occupies a wide 
valley, surrounded by high mountains. They thought tliis 
river must head near Liard River. This account differs 
materially from that given by the Indian, and to put them 
on their guard, I told them what he had told me, but they 
still persisted in their story, which I find differs a good 
deal from the account they gave Dr. Dawson, as incorpo- 
rated in liis report. 

"^ Many years ago, sixteen I think, a man named Monroe 
prospected up the Taku and learned from the Indians 
something of a large lake not far from that river. He 
crossed over and found it, and spent some time in prospect- 
ing, and then recrossed to the sea. This man had been at 
Forty Mile River, and I heard from the miners there his 
account of the appearance of the lake, which amounted 
generally to this : The Boswells did not know anything 
about it."" It was unfortunate the Boswells did not remain 



64 KL OND YKE FA CTS, 

at Forty Mile all winter, as by a comparison of recollections 
they might have arrived at some correct conclusion. 

'' Conflicting as these descriptions are, one thing is cer- 
tain : this branch, if it has not the greater discharge, is the 
longer and more important of the two, and offers easy 
and uninterrupted navigation for more than double the 
distance which the Lewes does, the canon being only ninety 
miles above the mouth of the Teslintoo. The Boswxlls 
reported it as containing much more useful timber than 
the Lewes, which indeed one would infer from its lower 
altitude. 

'^ Assuming this as the main river, and adding its length 
to the Lewes-Yukon below the junction, gives upward of 
2,200 miles of river, fully tAVO-thirds of which runs through 
a very mountainous country, without an impediment to 
navigation. 

'^ Some indefinite information was obtained as to the 
position of this river in the neighborhood of Marsh Lake 
tending to show that the distance between them was only 
about thirty or forty miles. 

'^ Between the Teslintoo and the Big Salmon, so called by 
the miners, or D'Abbadie by Schwatka, the distance is 
thirty-three and a-half miles, in which the Lewes preserves 
a generally uniform width and current. For a few miles 
below the Teslintoo it is a little over the ordinary width, 
but then contracts to about two hundred yards which it 
maintains with little variation. The current is generally 
from four to five miles per hour. 

'^ The Big Salmon I found to be about one hundred yards 
wide near the mouth, the depth not more than four or five 
feet, and the current, so far as could be seen, sluggish. 
None of the miners I met could give me any information con- 
cerning this stream ; but Dr. Dawson was more fortunate, 
and met a man who had spent most of the summer of 1887 
prospecting on it. His opinion was that it might be navi- 



KL OND YEE FA CTS. 65 

gable for small stcrn-wlieel steamers for many miles. 
The valley, as seen from the mouth, is wide, and gives one 
the impression of being occupied by a much more impor- 
tant stream. Looking up it, in the distance could be seen 
many high peaks covered with snow. As the date was 
August it is likely they are always so covered, which would 
make their probable altitude above the river 5,000 feet 
or more. 

'' Dr. Dawson, in his report, incorporates fully the notes 
obtained from the miners. I will trespass so far on these 
as to say that they called the distance to a small lake near 
the head of the river, 190 miles from the mouth. This 
lake was estimated to be four miles in length ; another lake 
about 12 miles above this was estimated to be twenty-four 
miles long, and its upper end distant only about eight 
miles from the Teslintoo. These distances, if correct, 
make this river much more important than a casual glance 
at it would indicate ; this, however, will be more fully 
spoken of under its proper head. 

" Just below the Big Salmon the Lewes takes a bend of 
nearly a right angle. Its course from the junction with 
the Tahkeena to this point is generally a little east of north ; 
at this point it turns to nearly west for some distance. Its 
course between here and its confluence with the Pelly is 
north-west, and, I may add, it preserves this general direc- 
tion down to the confluence with the Porcupine. The 
river also changes in another respect ; it is generally wider, 
and often expands into what might be called lakes, in 
which are islands. Some of the lakes are of considerable 
length, and well timbered. 

'' To determine which channel is the main one, that is, 
which carries the greatest volume of water, or is best avail- 
able for the purposes of navigation, among these islands, 
would require more time than I could devote to it on my 
way down ; consequently I cannot say more than that I have 
5 



66 KLONLYKE FACTS. 

no reason to doubt that a channel giving six feet or more 
of water could easily be found. Whenever, in the main 
channel, I had reason to think the water shallow, I tried 
it with my paddle, but always failed to find bottom, which 
gives upward of six feet. Of course I often found less than 
this, but not in what I considered the main channel. 

'^ Thirty-six and a quarter miles below the Big Salmon, 
the Little Salmon — the Daly of Schwatka — enters the 
Lewes. This river is about 60 yards wide at the mouth, 
and not more than two or three feet in depth. The water 
is clear and of a brownish hue ; there is not much current 
at the mouth, nor as far as can be seen uj} the stream. 
The valley Avhich, from the mouth, does not appear ex- 
tensive, bears northeast for some distance, when it ap- 
jiears to turn more to the east. Six or seven miles up, and 
apparently on the north side, some high cliffs of red 
rock, apparently granite, can be seen. It is said that 
some miners have prospected this stream, but I could learn 
nothing definite about it. 

'^ Lewes River makes a turn here to the southwest, and 
runs in that direction six miles, when it again turns to the 
northwest for seven miles, and then makes a short, sharp 
turn to the south and west around a low sandy point, 
which will, at some day in the near future, be cut through 
by the current, which will shorten the river three or four 
miles. 

" Eight miles below Little Salmon River, a large rock 
called the Eaglets Nest, stands uip in a gravel slope on the 
easterly bank of the river. It rises about five hundred 
feet above the river, and is composed of a light gray stone. 
What the character of this rock is I could not observe, as I 
saw it only from the river, which is about a quarter of a 
mile distant. On the westerly side of the river there are 
two or three other isolated masses of apparently the 
same kind of rock. One of them might be appropriately 



KLONDYKE FACTS. 67 

called a mountain ; it is south-west from the Eagle's Nest 
and distant from it about three miles. 

" Thirty-two miles below Eagle's Nest Rock, Nordenskiold 
Eiver enters from the west. It is an unimportant stream, 
being not more than one hundred and twenty feet wide at 
the mouth, and only a few inches deep. The valley, as far 
as can be seen, is not extensive, and, being very crooked, it 
is hard to tell what its general direction is. 

" The Lewes, between the Little Salmon and the Nor- 
denskiold, maintains a width of from two to three hundred 
yards, with an occasional expansion where there are 
islands. It is serpentine in its course most of the way, 
and where the Nordenskiold joins it is very crooked, run- 
ning several times under a hill, named by Schwatka Tan- 
talus Butte, and in other places leaving it, for a distance 
of eight miles. The distance across from point to point 
is only half a mile. 

" Below this to Five Finger Rapids, so-called from the 
fact that five large masses of rock stand in mid-channel, 
the river assumes its ordinary straightness and width, with 
a current from four to five miles per hour. I have already 
described Five Finger Rapids ; I do not think they will 
prove anything more than a slight obstruction in the 
navigation of the river. A boat of ordinary power would 
probably have to help herself up with windlass and line in 
high water. 

'' Below the rapids, for about two miles, the current is 
strong — probably six miles per hour — but the water seems 
to be deep enough for any boat that is likely to navigate it. 

" Six miles below this, as already noticed. Rink Rapids 
are situated. They are of no great importance, the 
westerly half of the stream only being obstructed. The 
easterly half is not in any way affected, the current being 
smooth and the water deep. 

** Below Five Finger Rapids about two miles a small 



68 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

stream enters from the east. It is called by Dr. Dawson 
Tatshun Elver. It is not more than 30 or 40 feet wide at 
the mouth, and contains only a little clear, brownish water. 
Here I met the only Indians seen on the river between 
Teslintoo and Stewart Elvers. They were engaged in 
catching salmon at the mouth of the Tatshun, and were 
the poorest and most unintelligent Indians it has ever 
been my lot to meet. It is needless to say that none of 
our party understood anything they said, as they could 
not speak a word of any language but their own. I tried 
by signs to get some information from them about the 
stream they were fishing in, but failed. I tried in the 
same way to learn if there were any more Indians in the 
vicinity, but again utterly failed. I then tried by signs to 
find out how many days it took to go down to Pelly Eiver, 
but although I have never known these signs to fail in 
eliciting information in any other part of the territory, 
they did not understand. They appeared to be alarmed 
by our presence ; and, as we had not yet been assured as 
to the rumor concerning the trouble between the miners 
and Indians, we felt a little apprehensive, but being able 
to learn nothing from them we had to put our fears aside 
and proceed blindly. 

^' Between Five Finger Eapids and Pelly Eiver, fifty- 
eight and a half-miles, no streams of any importance enter 
the Lewes ; in fact, with the exception of the Tatshun, it 
may be said that none at all enter. 

^^ About a mile below Eink EajDids the river spreads out 
into a lake-like expanse, with many islands ; this continues 
for about three miles, when it contracts to something like 
the usual width ; but bars and small islands are very 
numerous all the way to Pelly Eiver. About five miles 
above Pelly Eiver there is another lake-like expanse filled 
with islands. The river here for three or four miles is 
nearly a mile wide, and so numerous and close are the 



KLONDYKE FACTS. 69 

islands that it is impossible to tell when floating among 
them where the shores of the river are. The current, too, 
is swift, leading one to suppose the water shallow ; but I 
think even here a channel deep enough for such boats as 
will navigate this part of the river can be found. Schwatka 
named this group of islands '' Ingersoll Islands." 

'' At the mouth of the Pelly the Lewes is about half a 
mile wide, and here too there are many islands, but not 
in groups as at Ingersoll Islands. 

'' About a mile below the Pelly, just at the ruins of Fort 
Selkirk, the Yukon was found to be 5G5 yards wide ; about 
two-thirds being ten feet deep, with a current of about 
four and three-quarter miles, per hour ; the remaining 
third was more than half taken up by a bar, and the 
current between it and the south shore was very slack. 

" Pelly River at its mouth is about two hundred yards 
wide, and continues this width as far up as could be seen. 
Dr. Dawson made a survey and examination of this river, 
which will be found in his report already cited, " Yukon 
District and Northern British Columbia." 

^' Just here for a short distance the course of the Yukon 
is nearly west, and on the south side, about a mile below the 
mouth of the Lewes, stands all that remains of the only 
trading post ever built by white men in the district. This 
post was established by Robert Campbell, for the Hudson's 
Bay Company in the summer of 1848. It was first built on 
the point of land between the two rivers, but this location 
proving untenable on account of flooding by ice jams in the 
spring, it was, in the season of 1852, moved across the river 
to where the ruins now stand. It appears that the houses 
composing the post were not finished when the Indians 
from the coast on Chilkat and Chilkoot Inlets came down 
the river to put a stop to the competitive trade which Mr. 
Campbell had inaugurated, and which they found to 
seriously intef ere with their profits. Their method of trade 



70 KLONt) YKE FA CTS. 

appears to have been then pretty much as it is now — very 
onesided. What they found it convenient to take by 
force they took, and what it was convenient to pay for at 
their own price they paid for. 

^^ Rumors had reached the post tliat the coast Indians 
contemplated such a raid, and in consequence the native 
Indians in the vicinity remained about nearly all summer. 
Unfortunately, they went away for a short time, and dur- 
ing their absence the coast Indians arrived in the early 
morning, and surprised Mr. Campbell in bed. They were 
not at all rough with him, but gave him the privilege of 
leaving the place within twenty-four hours, after which 
he was informed that he was liable to be shot if seen by 
them in the locality. They then pillaged the place and 
set fire to it, leaving nothing but the remains of the two 
chimneys which are still standing. This raid and capture 
took place on the 1st August, 1852. 

'' Mr. Campbell dropped down the river, and met some of 
the local Indians who returned with him, but the robbers 
had made their escape. I have heard that the local Indians 
wished to pursue and overtake them, but to this Mr. . 
Campbell would not consent. Had they done so it is 
probable not many of the raiders would have escaped, as 
the superior local knowledge of the natives would have 
given them an advantage difficult to estimate, and the 
confidence and spirit derived from the aid and presence of 
a white man or two would be worth much in such a 
conflict. 

^' Mr. Campbell went on down the river until he met the 
outfit for his post on its way up from Fort Yukon, which 
he turned back. He then ascended the Pelly, crossed to 
the Liard, and reached Fort Simpson, on the Mackenzie, 
late in October. 

^^ Mr. CampbelFs first visit to tlie site of Fort Selkirk 
was made in 1840, under instructions from Sir George 



kLONBYKE FACTS. 7l 

Simpson, then Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company^ 
lie crossed from the head waters of the Liard to the waters 
of the Pelly. It appears the Pelly, where he struck it, Avas a 
stream of considerable size, for he speaks of its appearance 
when lie first saw it from ' Pelly Banks/ the name given 
the bank from which he first beheld it, as a ' splendid 
river in the distance/ In June, 1843, he descended the 
Pelly to its confluence with the larger stream, which he 
named the ' Lewes/ Here he found many families of the 
native Indians — ' Wood Indians,' he called them. These 
people conveyed to him, as best they could by word and 
sign, the dangers that would attend a further descent of 
the river, representing that the country below theirs was 
inhabited by a tribe of fierce cannibals, who would assuredly? 
kill and eat them. This so terrified his men that he had 
to return by the way he came, pursued, as he afterwards 
learned, by the Indians, who would have murdered him- 
self and party had they got a favorable opportunity. Thus 
it was not until 1850 that he could establish, what he says 
he all along believed, -that the Pelly and Yukon were 
identical.' This he did by descending the river to where 
the Porcupine Joins it, and Avhere in 1847 Fort Yukon 
was established by Mr. A. H. Murray for the Hudson's Bay 
Company. 

'' With reference to the tales told him by the Indians 
of bad people outside of their country, I may say that 
Mackenzie tells pretty much the same story of the Indians 
on the Mackenzie when he discovered and explored that 
river in 1789. He had the advantage of having Indians 
along with him whose language was radically the same as 
that of the people he was coming among, and his state- 
ments are more explicit and detailed. Everywhere he 
came in contact with them they manifested, first, dread of 
himself and party, and wlien friendship and confidence 
were established they nearly always tried to detain him by 



72 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

representing the people in the direction he was going as 
unnaturally bloodthirsty and cruel, sometimes asserting 
the existence of monsters with supernatural powers, as at 
Manitou Island, a few miles below the present Fort Good 
Hope, and the people on a very large river far to the west 
of the Mackenzie, probably the Yukon, they described to 
him as monsters in size, power and cruelty. 

*^ In our own time, after the intercourse that there has 
been between them and the whites, more than a suspicion 
of such unknown, cruel people lurks in the minds of many 
of the Indians. It would be futile for me to try to ascribe 
an origin for these fears, my Jcnowledge of their language 
and idiosyncrasies being so limited. 

^^ Nothing more was ever done in the vicinity of Fort 
Selkirk * by the Hudson's Bay Company after these events, 
and in 18G9 the Company was ordered by Capt. Charles 
W. Kaymond, who represented the United States Govern- 
ment, to evacuate the post at Fort Yukon, he having 
found that it was west of the 141st meridian. The post 
was occupied by the Company, however, for some time 
after the receipt of this order, and until Rampart House 
was built, which was intended to be on British territory, 
and to take the trade previously done at Fort Yukon. 

^' Under present conditions the Company cannot very 
well compete with the Alaska Commercial Company, 
whose agents do the only trade in the district,! and they 
appear to have abandoned — for the present at least — all 

* This is now a winter port for steamboats of the North Ameri- 
can Transportation and Trading Company, plying the Yukon and 
its tributaries. There is also a trading post here owned by 
Harper & Ladue. 

f Since the date of this report the North American Transport- 
ation and Trading Company, better known in the Yukon valley 
as " Captain Healy's Company," has established a number of posts 
on the river. 



KLONDYKE FACTS. 73 

attempt to do any trade nearer to it than Rampart House 
to which point, notwithstanding the distance and difficul- 
ties in the way, many of the Indians on the Yukon make 
a trip every two or three years to procure goods in ex- 
change for their furs. The clothing and blankets brought 
in by the Hudson's Bay Company they claim arc much 
better than those traded on their own river by the Ameri- 
cans. Those of them that I saw who had any English 
blankets exhibited them with pride, and exclaimed ' good.' 
They point to an American blanket in contempt, with the 
remark ' no good,' and speak of their clothing in the 
same way. 

" On many maps of Alaska a place named ' Reed's 
House ' is shown on or near the u^^per waters of Stewart 
River. I made enquiries of all whom I thought likely to 
know anything concerning this post, but failed to elicit 
any information showing that there ever had been such a 
place. I enquired of Mr. Reid, who was in the Company's 
service with Mr. Campbell at Fort Selkirk, and after 
whom I thought, possibly, the place had been called, but 
he told me he knew of no such post, but that there was a 
small lake at some distance in a northerly direction from 
Fort Selkirk, where fish were procured. A sort of shelter 
had been made at that point for the fishermen, and a few 
furs might have been obtained there, but it was never 
regarded as a trading post. 

*^^ Below Fort Selkirk, the Yukon River is from five to 
six hundred yards broad, and maintains this width down 
to White River, a distance of ninety-six miles. Islands 
are numerous, so much so that there are very few parts of 
the river where there are not one or more in sight. Many 
of them are of considerable size, and nearly all are well 
timbered. Bars are also numerous, but almost all are 
composed of gravel, so that navigators will not have to 
complain of shifting sand bars. The current as a general 



74 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

thing, is not so rapid as in the upper part of the river, 
averaging about four miles per hour. The depth in the 
main channel was always found to be more than six feet. 

'^From Pelly River to within twelve miles of White 
Eiver the general course of the river is a little north of 
Avest ; it then turns to the north, and the general course 
as far as the site of Fort Reliance is due north. 

^' White River enters the main river from the west. At 
the mouth it is about two hundred yards wide, but a 
great part of it is filled with ever-shifting sand-bars, the 
main volume of water being confined to a channel not 
more than one hundred yards in width. The current is 
very strong, certainly not less than eight miles per hour. 
The color of the water bears witness to this, as it is much 
the muddiest that I have ever seen.* 

^' I had intended to make a survey of part of this river as 
far as the International Boundary, and attempted to do 
so ; but after trying for over half a day, I found it would 
be a task of much labor and time, altogether out of pro- 
portion to the importance of the end sought, and therefore 
abandoned it. The valley as far as can be seen from the 
mouth, runs about due west for a distance of eight miles ; 
it then appears to bear to the south-west ; it is about two 
miles wide where it joins the Pelly valley and apparently 
keeps the same width as far as it can be seen. 

'^ Mr. Harper, of the firm of Harper & Ladue, went up 
this river with sleds in the fall of 1872 a distance of fifty or 
sixty miles. He describes it as possessing the same 

* The White River very probably flows over volcanic deposits 
as its sediments would indicate ; no doubt this would account for 
the discoloration of its waters. The volcanic ash appears to 
cover a great extent of the Upper Yukon basin drained by the 
Lewes and Pelly Rivers. Very full treatment of the subject is 
given by Dr. Dawson, in his report entitled "Yukon District and 
Northern portion of British Columbia." 



KLONDYKE FACTS, 75 

general features all the way up, with much clay soil along 
its banks. Its general course, as sketched by him on a 
map of mine, is for a distance of about thirty miles a little 
north-west, thence south-west thirty or thirty-five miles, 
when it deflects to the north-west running along the base 
of a high mountain ridge. If the courses given are 
correct it must rise somewhere near the head of Forty Mile 
River ; and if so, its length is not at all in keeping with 
the volume of its discharge, when compared with the known 
length and discharge of other rivers in the territory. Mr. 
Harper mentioned an extensive flat south of the mountain 
range spoken of, across which many high mountain peaks 
could be seen. One of tliese he thought must be Mount 
St. Elias,asit overtopped ail the others; but, as Mount 
St. Elias is about one hundred and eighty miles distant, 
his conclusion is not tenable. From his description of 
this mountain it must be more than twice the height of 
the highest peaks seen anywhere on the lower river, and 
consequently must be ten or twelve thousand feet above 
the sea. He stated that the current in the river was very 
swift, as far as he ascended, and the water muddy. The 
water from this river, though probably not a fourth of the 
volume of the Yukon, discolors the water of the latter 
completely ; and a couple of miles, below the junction the 
whole river appears almost as dirty as White River. 
^ " Between White and Stewart Rivers, ten miles, tlie 
river spreads out to a mile and upwards in widtli, and is a 
maze of islands and bars. The survey was carried down 
the easterly shore, and many of tlie channels passed through 
barely afforded water enough to float tlie canoes. The 
main channel is along the westerly shore, down which the 
large boat went, and tlie crew reported plenty of water. 

'' Stewart River enters from the east in the middle of 
a wide valley, with low hills on both sides, rising on the 
north sides in steps or terraces to distant hills of consider- 



76 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

able height. The river half a mile or so above the mouth, 
is two hundred yards in width. The current is slack and 
the water shallow and clear, but dark colored. 

^' While at the mouth I was fortunate enough to meet 
a miner who had si)ent the whole of the summer 
of 1887 on the river and its branches prospecting and 
exploring. He gave me a good deal of information of 
which I give a summary. He is a native of New Bruns- 
wick, Alexander McDonald by name, and has spent some 
years mining in other places, but was very reticent about 
what he had made or found. Sixty or seventy miles up 
the Stewart a large creek enters from the south which he 
called Eose Bud Creek or River, and thirty or forty miles 
further up a considerable stream flows from the north-east, 
which appears to be Beaver River, as marked on the maps 
of that part of the country. From the head of this stream 
he floated down on a raft taking five days to do so. He 
estimated his progress at forty or fifty miles each day, 
which gives a length of from two hundred to two hundred 
and fifty miles. This is probably an over-estimate, unless 
the stream is very crooked, which, he stated, was not the 
case. As much of his time would be taken uj) in prospect- 
ing, I should call thirty miles or less a closer estimate of 
his progress. This river is from fifty to eighty yards wide 
and was never more than four or five feet deep, often being 
not more than two or three ; the current, he said, was not 
at all swift. Above the mouth of this stream the main 
river is from one hundred to one hundred and thirty yards 
wide with an even current and clear water. Sixty or 
seventy miles above the last-mentioned branch another 
large branch joins, which is possibly the main river. At 
the head of it he found a lake nearly thirty miles long, 
and averaging a mile and a half in width, which he called 
Mayhew Lake, after one of the partners in the firm of 
Harper, McQuestion & Co. 



KLONDYKE FACTS. 77 

" Thirty miles or so above the forks on the other branch 
there are falls, which McDonald estimated to be from one 
to two hundred feet in height. I met several parties who 
had seen these falls, and they corroborate this estimate of 
their height. McDonald went on past the falls to the 
head of this branch and found terraced gravel hills to the 
west and north ; he crossed them to the north and found 
a river flowing northward. On this he embarked on a raft 
and floated down it for a day or two, thinking it would 
turn to the west and join the Stewart, but finding it still 
continuing north, and acquiring too much volume to be 
any of the branches he had seen while passing up the 
Stewart, he returned to the point of his departure, and 
after prospecting among the hills around the head of the 
river, he started westward, crossing a high range of moun- 
tains composed principally of shales with many thin seams 
of what he called quartz, ranging from one to six inches 
in thickness. 

'• On the west side of this range he found a river flowing 
out of what he called Mayhew Lake, and crossing this got 
to the head of Beaver River, which he descended as before 
mentioned. 

^^It is probable the river flowing northwards, on which 
he made a journey and returned, was a branch of Peel 
River. He described the timber on the gravel terraces of 
the watershed as small and open. He was alone in this un- 
known wilderness all summer, not seeing even any of the 
natives. There are few men so constituted as to be ca- 
pable of isolating themselves in such a manner. Judging 
from all I could learn it is probable a light-draught steam- 
boat could navigate nearly all of Stewart River and its 
tributaries. 

^^From Stewart River to the site of Fort Reliance,* 

*This was at one time a trading post occupied by Messrs. 
Harper & McQuestion. 



78 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

seventy-three and a qnarter miles, the Ynkon is broad and 
full of islands. The average width is between a half and 
three quarters of a mile, but there are many expansions 
where it is over a mile in breadth ; however, in these places 
it cannot be said that the waterway is wider than at other 
parts of the river, the islands being so large and numerous. 
In this reach no streams of any importance enter. 

*^ About thirteen miles below Stewart Kiver a large 
valley joins that of the river, but the stream occupying it 
is only a large creek. This agrees in position with what 
has been called Sixty Mile Creek, which was supposed to 
be about that distance above Fort Reliance, but it does 
not agree with descriptions which I received of it ; more- 
over as Sixty Mile Creek is known to be a stream of con- 
siderable length, this creek would not answer its descrip- 
tion. 

'' Twenty-two and a half miles from Stewart Eiver 
another and larger creek enters from the same side ; it 
agrees with the descriptions of Sixty Mile Creek, and I 
have so marked it on my map. This stream is of no im- 
portance, except for what mineral wealth may be found 
on it.* 

*^ Six and a half miles above Fort Reliance the Thron- 

* Sixty Mile Creek is about one hundred miles long, very 
crooked, with a swift current and many rapids, and is therefore 
not easy to ascend. 

Miller, Glacier, Gold, Little Gold and Bedrock Creeks are all 
tributaries of Sixty Mile. Some of the richest discoveries in gold 
so far made in the interior since 1894 have been upon these 
creeks, especially has this been the case upon the two first men- 
tioned. There is a claim upon ]\Iiller Creek owned by Joseph 
Boudreau from which over $100,000 worth of gold is said to have 
been taken out. 

Freight for the mines is taken up Forty Mile Creek in summer 
for a distance of 30 miles, then portaged across to the heads of 
Miller and Glacier Creeks. In the winter it is hauled in by dogs. 



KLONDYKE FACTS. 79 

Diuck * River of the Indians (Deer River of Scliwatka) 
enters from the east. It is a small river about forty yards 
wide at the mouth, and shallow ; the water is clear and 
transparent, and of beautiful blue color. The Indians 
catch great numbers of salmon here. They had been fish- 
ing shortly before my arrival, and the river, for some dis- 
tance up, was full of salmon traps. 

^^ A miner had prospected up this river for an estimated 
distance of forty miles, in the season of 1887. I did not 
see him, but got some of his information at second hand. 
The water being so beautifully clear I thought it must 
come through a large lake not far up ; but as far as he 
had gone no lakes were seen. He said the current was 
comparatively slack, with an occasional ' ripple ' or small 
rapid. Where he turned back the river is surrounded by 
high mountains, which were then covered with snow, 
which accounts for the purity and clearness of the water. 

The trip from Cudahy to the post at the mouth of Sixty Mile 
River is made by ascending Forty Mile River a small distance, mak- 
ing a short portage to Sixty Mile River and rmming down with 
its swift current. Coming back on the Yukon, nearly the whole 
of the round trip is made down stream. 

Indian Creek enters the Yukon from the east about 30 miles 
below Sixty Mile. It is reported to be rich in gold, but owing to 
to the scarcity of supplies its development has been retarded. 

At the mouth of Sixty Mile Creek a townsite of that name is 
located, it is the headquarters for upwards of 100 miners and 
where they more or less assemble in the winter months. 

Messrs. Harper & Co. have a trading post and a saw-mill on 
an island at the mouth of the creek, both of which are in charge 
of Mr. J. Ladue, one of the partners of the firm, and who was 
at one time in the employ of the Alaska Commercial Company. 

* Dawson City is situated at the mouth of the Thron-Diuck 
now known as Klondyke, and although it was located only a few 
months ago it is the scene of great activity. Very rich deposits 
of gold have been lately found on Bonanza Creek and other 
affluents of the Thron-Diuck. 



80 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

" It appears that the Indians go up this stream a long 
distance to hunt, but I could learn nothing definite as to 
their statements concerning it. 

'' Twelve and a half miles below Fort Eeliance, the 
Chandindu Kiver, as named by Schwatka, enters from the 
east. It is thirty to forty yards wide at the mouth, very 
shallow, and for half a mile up is one continuous rapid. 
Its valley is wide and can be seen for a long distance look- 
ing north-eastward from the mouth. 

^' Between Fort Keliance and Forty Mile Eiver (called 
Cone Hill River by Schwatka) the Yukon assumes its nor- 
mal appearance, having fewer islands and being narrower, 
averaging four to six hundred yards wide, and the current 
being more regular. This stretch is forty-six miles long, 
but was estimated by the traders at forty, from which the 
Forty Mile Eiver took its name. 

'^ Forty Mile Eiver* joins the main river from the west. 
Its general course as far upas the International Boundary, 
a distance of twenty-three miles, is south-west ; after this 

^ Forty Mile town site is situated on the south side of the Forty 
Mile River at its junction with the Yukon, The Alaska Commer- 
cial Company has a station here which was for some years in 
charge of L. N. McQuestion ; there are also several blacksmith 
shops, restaurants, billiard halls, bakeries, an opera house and so 
on. Rather more than half a mile below Forty Mile townsite the 
town of Cudahy was founded on the north side of Forty Mile 
River in the summer of 1892. It is named after a well known 
member of the North American Transportation and Trading Com- 
pany. In population and extent of business the town bears com- 
parison with its neighbor across the river. Tlie opposition in 
trade has been the means of very materially reducing the cost of 
supplies and living. The North American Transportation and 
Trading Company has erected a saw-mill and some large ware- 
houses. Fort Constantine was established here immediately upon 
tlie arrival of the Mounted Police detachment in the latter part of 
July , 1895. It is described further on in an extract from Inspector 
Constantine's supplementary report for the year 1895. 



KLONBYKE FACTS. 81 

it is reported by the miners to run nearer south. Many 
of them claim to have ascended this stream for more than 
one hundred miles, and speak of it there as quite a large 
river. They say tliat at that distance it has reached the 
level of the plateau, and the country adjoining it they 
describe as flat and swampy, rising very little above the 
river. It is only a short distance across to the Tanana 
River — a large tributary of the Yukon — which is here de- 
scribed as an important stream. However, only about 
twenty-three miles of Forty Mile Eiver are in Canada ; 
and the upper part of it and its relation to other rivers in 
the district have no direct interest for us. 

^^ Forty Mile River is one hundred to one hundred and 
fifty yards wide at the mouth, and the current is generally 
strong, with many small rapids. Eight miles up is the 
so-called canon ; it is hardly entitled to that distinctive 
name, being simply a crooked contraction of the river, with 
steep rocky banks, and on the north side there is plenty of 
room to walk along the beach. At the lower end of the 
canon there is a short turn and swift water in which are 
some large rocks ; these cannot generally be seen, and there 
is much danger of striking them running down in a boat. 
At this point several miners have been drowned by their 
boats being upset in collision with these rocks. It is no 
great distance to either shore, and one would think an 
ordinary swimmer would have no difficulty in reaching 
land ; but the coldness of the water soon benumbs a man 
completely and renders him powerless. In the summer of 
1887, an Indian, from Tanana, with his family, was com- 
ing down to trade at the post at the mouth of Forty Mile 
River ; his canoe struck on these rocks and upset, and he 
was thrown clear of the canoe, but the woman and children 
clung to it. In the rough water he lost sight of them, and 
concluded that they were lost : it is said he deliberately 
drew his knife and cut his throat, thus perishing, while 



82 KLONBYKE FACT 3. 

his family were luxuled asliore by some miners. The chief 
of the band to which this Indian belonged came to the post 
and demanded pay for his loss, which he contended was 
occasioned by the traders having moved from Belle Isle to 
Forty Mile, thus causing them to descend this dangerous 
rapid, and there is little doubt that had there not been so 
many white men in the vicinity he would have tried to 
enforce his demand. 

"The length of the so-called canon is about a mile. 
Above it the river up to the boundary is generally smooth, 
with swift current and an occasional ripple. The amount 
of water discharged by this stream is considerable ; but 
there is no prospect of navigation, it being so swift and 
broken by small rapids. 

'^From Forty Mile River to the boundary the Yukon 
preserves the same general character as between Fort Reli- 
ance and Forty Mile, the greatest width being about half 
a mile and the least al)out a quarter. 

Fifteen miles below Forty Mile River a large mass of 
rock stands on the east bank. This was named by 
Schwatka ' Roquette Rock,^ but is known to the traders 
as Old Woman Rock ; a similar mass, on the west side of 
the river, being known as Old Man Rock. 

" The origin of these names is an Indian legend, of 
which the following is the version given to me by the 
traders : — 

'^ In remote ages there lived a powerful shaman, pro- 
nounced Tshaumen by the Indians, this being the local 
name for what is known as medicine man among the In- 
dians farther south and east. The Tshaumen holds a posi- 
tion and exercises an influence among the people he lives 
with, something akin to the wise men or magi of olden times 
in the East. In this powerful being's locality there lived 
a poor man who had the great misfortune to have an invet- 
erate scold for a wife. He bore the infliction for a long 



KLOXDYKE FACTS. 83 

time without murmuring, in hopes that she would relent, 
but time seemed only to increase the affliction ; at length, 
growing weary of the unceasing torment, he complained 
to the Tshaumen wlio comforted him, and sent him home 
with the assurance that all would soon be well. 

'' Shortly after this he went out to hunt, and remained 
away for many days endeavoring to get some provisions 
for home use, but without avail ; he returned weary and 
hungry, only to be met by his wife witli a more than 
usually violent outburst of scolding. This so provoked 
him that he gathered all his strength and energy for one 
grand effort and gave her a kick that sent her clean across 
the river. On landing she was converted into the mass of 
rock which remains to this day a memorial of her vicious- 
ness and a warning to all future scolds. The metamor- 
phosis was effected by the Tshaumen, but how the neces- 
sary force was acquired to send her across the river (here 
about half a mile wide), or whether the kick was adminis- 
tered by the Tshaumen or the husband, my narrator could 
not say. He was altogether at a loss to account for con- 
version of the husband into the mass of rock on the west 
side of the river ; nor can I offer any theory unless it is 
that he was petrified by astonishment at the result. 

" Such legends as this would be of interest to ethnologists 
if they could be procured direct from the Indians, but 
repeated by men who have little or no knowledge of the 
utility of legendary lore, and less sympathy with it, tliey 
lose much of their value. 

" Between Forty Mile River and the boundary line no 
stream of any size joins the Yukon ; in fact, there is only 
one stream, which some of the miners have named Sheep 
Creek, but as there is another stream further down the 
river, called by the same name, I liave named it Coal 
Creek. It is five miles below Forty Mile, and comes in 
from the east, and is a large creek, but not at all navigable. 



84 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

On it some extensive coal seams were seen, wliich will be 
more fully referred to further on. 



" At the boundary the river is somewhat contracted, 
and measures only 1,280 feet across in the winter ; but in 
summer, at ordinary water level, it would be about one 
hundred feet wider. Immediately below the boundary it 
expands to its usual width, which is about 2,000 feet. 
The area of the cross section measured is 22,268 feet, the 
sectional area of the Teslintoo, as determined by Dr. 
Dawson and already referred to, is 3,809 feet ; that of the 
Lewes at the Teslintoo, from the same authority, is 3,015 
feet. Had the above cross-section been reduced to the 
level at which the water ordinarily stands during the sum- 
mer months, instead of to the height at which it stood in 
the middle of September when it was almost at its lowest, 
the sectional area would have been at least 50 per cent 
more,and at spring flood level about double the above area. 

^* It is a difficult matter to determine the actual discharge 
at the place of the cross-section, owing to the irregularity 
in the depth and current, the latter being in the deep 
channel at the east side, when I tried it in September, 
approximately 4*8 miles per hour ; while on the bar in 
midstream it was not more than 2*5 miles per hour ; and 
between the bar and the westerly shore there was very 
little current. 

" The river above this for some miles was no better for 
the purpose of cross-section measurement. At the bound- 
ary it is narrow and clear of bars and islands for some 
miles, but here I did not have on opportunity to determine 
the rate of the current before the river froze up, and 
after it froze the drift ice was jammed and piled so high 
that it would have been an almost endless task to cut holes 
through it. 



KLONDYKE FACTS. 85 

The current from the boundary down to the confluence 
with the Porcupine is said to be strong and much the same 
as that above ; from the Porcupine down, for a distance 
of five or six hundred miles it is called medium and the 
remainder easy. 

From Stewart River to the mouth of the Yukon is about 
1,650 miles, and the only difficult place in all this distance 
is the part near the confluence with the Porcupine, which 
has evidently been a lake in past ages but is now filled with 
islands ; it is said that the current here is swift, and the 
channels generally narrow, rendering navigation difficult. 



86 KLONJJYKE FACTS. 



CHAPTER III. 

ADVICE TO BEGINNERS. 

Men" who are thinking of going to the Klondyke regions 
and taking a trip of this character for the first time, will 
do well to carefully read the chapter on ^' Outfit for 
Miners." It is a great mistake to take anything except 
what is necessary ; the trij) is a long arduous one, and a 
man should not add one j)ound of haggage to his outfit that 
can be dispensed with. I have knoAvn men who have 
loaded themselves wp with rifles, revolvers and shot-guns. 
This is entirely unnecessary. Revolvers will get you into 
trouble, and there is no use of taking them with you, as 
large game of any character is rarely found on the trip. I 
have prospected through this region for some years and 
have only seen one moose. You will not see any large 
game whatever on your trip from Juneau to Dawson City, 
therefore do not take any firearms along. 

You will find a list of the implements for the miner in 
the chapter on " Outfit for Miners.'^ 

The miners here are a very mixed class of people. They 
represent many nationalities and come from all climates. 
Their lives are certainly not enviable. 

The regulation miner's cabin is 12 by 14 with walls six 
feet high and gables eight feet in height. The roof is 
heavily earthed and the cabin is generally kept very warm. 
Two, or sometimes three or four men will live in a house of 
this size. The ventilation is usually bad, the windows 



KLONDYKE FACTS. 87 

being very small. Those miners who do not work their 
claims during the winter confine themselves to these small 
hilts most of the time. Very often they become indolent 
and careless, only eating those things which are most easily 
cooked or prepared. During the busy time in summer 
when they are shovelling in, they work hard and for long 
hours, sparing little time for eating and much less for 
cooking. 

This manner of living is quite common amongst begin- 
ners, and soon leads to debility and sometimes to scurvy. 
Old miners have learned from experience to value health 
more than gold, and they therefore spare no expense in 
procuring the best and most varied outfit of food that can 
be obtained. 

In a cold climate such as this, where it is impossible to 
get fresh vegetables and fruits, it is most important that 
the best substitutes for these should be provided. Nature 
helps to supply these wants by growing cranberries and 
other wild fruits in abundance, but men in summer are 
usually too busy to avail themselves of these. 

The diseases met with in this country are dyspej)sia, 
anaemia, scurvy caused by improperly cooked food, same- 
ness of diet, overwork, want of fresh vegetables, overheated 
and badly ventilated houses ; rheumatism, pneumonia, 
bronchitis, enteritis, cystitis and other acute diseases, from 
exposure to wet and cold ; debility and chronic diseases, 
due to excesses. 

Men coming to Klondyke should be sober, strong and 
healthy. They should be practical men, able to adapt 
themselves quickly to their surroundings. Special care 
should be taken to see that their lungs are sound, that 
they are free from rheumatism and rheumatic tendency, 
and that their joints, especially knee Joints, are strong and 
have never been weakened by injury, synovitis or other 
disease. It is also very important to consider their tern- 



88 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

peraments. Men should be of clieerful, hopeful disposi- 
tions and willing workers. Those of sullen, morose na- 
tures, although they may be good workers, are very apt, 
as soon as the novelty of the country wears off, to become 
dissatisfied, pessimistic and melancholy. 



KLONDYKE FACTS. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

OUTFIT FOR Mli^EES. 

In giving any advice for outfits for miners, I slioiild first 
state tiiat it is a great mistake to purchase anything what- 
ever before arriving at Juneau, Alaska. This has been a 
supply point for that region for upwards of ten years, and 
store-keepers and supply companies carry in stock ex- 
actly what is necessary for the miners. You will find that 
their j^rices are reasonable, considering the difference in 
cost of transportation at any point you might decide to 
purchase from in the United States ; in fact it is the saving 
of money to buy in Juneau. 

In the matter of clothing, of course, it must be left to 
the individual taste and means of the purchaser, but the 
miners usually adopt the native costume of the region. 
The boots are generally made by the coast Indians and are 
of different varieties. The water boot is made of seal and 
walrus. It is imjiortant to take a pair of rubber boots 
along. Additional boots can be purchased at Dawson 
City. The native boots cost from two to five dollars a pair. 
Trousers are generally made from Siberian fawn skins and 
the skin of the marmot or the ground squirrel. The outer 
garments are generally made of the marmot skin. The 
people at Dawson City who are not engaged in mining, 
such as store-keepers, clerks, etc., generally wear these 
garments. Good warm flannels are important. Every- 
thing in the way of underwear is made of flannel, such as 
shirts. The cost of flannel shirts at Dawson City is $5. Kub- 



90 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

ber boots at Dawson City are $10 to ^512.00 a pair, Blankets 
and robes are used for bedding, and should be purchased 
at Juneau. Wolf skins make the best robes. Good ones 
cost 1100 apiece, but cheaper ones can be obtained from 
the bear, mink, and red fox and Arctic Hare. Warm 
socks are riiade from the skin of the Arctic Hare. 

If yon have any delay at Juneau, you will, probably, 
be asked to take trips to the Giant Glaciers, but my ad- 
vice is to stay in Juneau until the steamer is ready to start 
for Dyea. You will need all the rest you can get before 
starting uj) the Pass. 

In the matter of provisions, the following is a list which 
is considered sufficient to last a man on his trip from 
Juneau to Dawson City : — 

20 pounds of flour, 
12 pounds of bacon, 
12 '^ " beans, 

4 " " butter, 

5 ff (( vegetables, 

4 cans of condensed milk, 

5 pounds of sugar, 
1 pound of tea, 

3 pounds of coifee, 
1 1-2 pound of salt, 
5 pounds of corn meal, 
A small portion of pepper and mustard. 

The following utensils should be taken : — 

1 frying pan, 
1 water kettle, 
1 Yukon stove, 

1 bean pot, 

2 plates, 



KLONDYKE FACfS. 91 

1 tin drinking cup, 

1 tea pot, 

1 knife and fork, 

1 large and 1 small cooking pan. 

The following tools should be brought as part of the out- 
fit : — These will be found absolutely necessary to build a 
boat at Lake Lindeman : — 

1 jack plane, 
1 whip saw, 
1 cross-cut saw, 
1 axe, 
1 hatchet, 
1 hunting-knife. 
6 pounds of assorted nails, 
1 pound of oakum, 
5 pounds of pitch, 
150 feet of rope, 
1 Juneau sled. 

It is also necessary to have one good duck tent and a 
rubber blanket. 

A good piece of mosquito netting will not be heavy and 
will also be very great comfort on the trip. 

Do not forget to put in a good supply of matches, and 
take a small supply of fishing tackle, hooks, etc. 

It is very imjoortant that you have a pair of snow glasses 
to guard against snow blindness. 

It will be interesting to know the prices at Dawson City 
for supplies : 

When I left in June, 1896. 
Flour was sold in 50 pound bags at pJ.OO a bag. 
Fresh beef was supplied at 50 cents a jjound. 
Bacon was 40 cents. 



92 KLONDYKE FACTS. 

Coffee was 50 cents per pound. 

Brown sngar was 20 cents per pound and granulated 
sugar was 25 cents a pound. 

Condensed milk was 50 cents per can. 

Pick axes were 16.00 each. 

Miners' shovels were 12.00 each. 

Lumber right at Dawson City was 1130.00 per thousand 
feet undressed, and $150.00 per thousand feet dressed. 

It is well perhaps to advise the traveller to supply him- 
self with a small medicine box which can be purchased in 
Juneau, but it is not necessary if he enjoys good rugged 
health. 

On arriving at Dawson City, luxuries will be found to be 
very high ; what is to be considered a very cheap cigar in 
the United States, two for 5 cents, sells in Dawson City 
at 50 cents each. 

Liquors command very high prices. Whisky sells in 
the saloons for 50 cents a glass, and fluctuates from $15.00 
to 125.00 per gallon, according to the supplies received 
from the at present overtaxed transportation companies. 
There was about 12,000 gallons of whisky imported into 
the territory from Canada the past year. Smoking tobacco 
was selling at 11.50 a pound and good plug cut and fancy 
tobacco was selling at $2.00 a pound. 

The demand for medicine is very light, but the local 
traders carry a small stock of patent and proprietary 
medicines. 



KLONDYKE NUGGETS. 



CHAPTEK Y. 



The reports already received of the finds of gold 
seem beyond belief but the greater part of them are 
actual facts, and the following came under my per- 
sonal observation : — 

Alexander McDonald, on Claim No. 30, Eldorado, 
on the Klondyke, started drifting on his claim with 
four men. The men agreed to work the claim on 
shares, the agreement being that they should work 
on shares by each receiving half of what they could 
get out. The five together took out $95,000.00 in 
twenty-eight days. The ground dug up was found 
to measure but 40 square feet. This was an excep- 
tional find. The men are of course working the 
claim and had 460 square feet on the claim still to 
work out when I left for the East. 

People in the East or elsewhere can hardly realize 
what a small space a mining claim is in this vast 
and comparatively unexplored territory. 

William Leggatt on Claim No. 13, Eldorado, to- 
gether with William Gates and a miner named 
Shoots, purchased their claim from a miner named 
Stewart, and his partner, for the sum of $45,000.00. 
They did not have money to make the payment in 



KLONDYKE NUGGETS. 

cash but made a first payment of $2,000.00 with the 
at^reement to ]xiy the balance of the purchase price, 
$43,000.00, prior to July 1st, 1897. They sunk a 
shaft and commenced taking out $1,000.00 per day. 

They Avorked the pay dirt until about May 15, 
1897, when they found that they had taken out 
$62,000.00, and the space of the claim worked was 
only twenty-four square feet. 

A young man who went to the Klondyke recently 
writes that he is taking out $1,800.00 a day from 
his claim. 

" It is stated on good authority that one claim 
yielded $90,000 in 45 feet up and down the stream. 
Clarence Berry bought out his two partners, paying 
one $35,000 and the other $60,000, and has taken up 
$140,000 from the winter dump alone. Peter 
Wiborg has purchased more ground. He purchased 
his partner's interest in a claim, paying $42,000. A 
man by the name of Wall has all he thinks he Avants, 
and is coming out. He sold his interests for $50,000. 
Nearly all the gold is found in the creek bed on the 
bed rock, but there are a few good bench diggings. 

Perhaps the most interesting reading in the 
Mining Record is the letters written by men in the 
Klondyke to friends in Juneau. Here is one from 
" Casey " Moran : 

Dawson, March 20, 1897. 

" Friend George : Don't pay any attention to 
what any one says, but come in at your earliest op- 
portunity. My God! it is appalling to hear the 



KLONDYKE NUGGETS, 

truth, but nevertheless the world has never pro- 
duced its ec|ual before. Well, come. That's all. 
Your friend, 

"Casey." 

Burt Shuler, writing from Klondyke under date of 
June 5, says : 

" We have been here but a short time and we all 
have money. Provisions are much higher than they 
were two years ago and clothing is clean out of 
sight. One of the A. C. Co.'s boats was lost in the 
spring, and there will be a shortage of provisions 
again this fall. There is nothing that a man could 
eat or wear that he cannot get a good price for. 
First-class rubber boots are worth from an ounce of 
gold to $25 a pair. The price of flour has been 
raised from $4 to $6, as it was being freighted 
from Forty Mile. Big money can be made by 
bringing a small outfit over the trail this fall. 
Wages have been $15 per day all winter, though 
a reduction to $10 w^as attempted, but the miners 
quit work. . . . Here is a creek that is eighteen 
miles long, and, as far as is known, without a miss. 
There are not enough men in tlie country to-day 
to work the claims. Several other creeks show 
equal promise, but very little work has been done 
on the latter. I have seen gold dust until it seems 
almost as cheap as sawdust. If you are coming 
in, come prepared to stay two years at least ; bring 
plenty of clothing and good rubber boots." 



KLONDYKE NUGGETS 

Thus far little attempt to mine quartz has been 
made in the interior of Alaska and the Northwest, 
although many quartz croppings have been seen. It 
would cost too much to take in the machinery and to 
build a plant until transportation facilities are better. 
In time, however, quartz mining operations will com- 
mence, for the placer mines were washed down from 
the mother veins somewhere. If the washings have 
made the richest placers in the world, what must the 
mother vein« be ? One dares hardly to imagine. 

This is a brief description of the gold region in the 
Northwest. 

For further and more detailed information on Routes 
and Distances, Transportations, Mining I^aws, How 
to Stake a Claim, Where to Register Your Claim, 
Modes of Placer Mining and Quartz Mining, Return of 
Gold from the Diggings, Mortality, Cost of Living, 
etc., I refer the reader to my book on this subject en- 
titled " Klondyke Facts," a work of about 224 pages. 
It is published in paper covers at 50 cents a copy with 
maps and illustrations, and is sent postpaid by the pub- 
lishers on receipt of 50 cents. 

American Tkchnicai. Book Co., 

45 Vesey Street, 
New York, N. Y., U. *S. A. 



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